3 Of 26 Clans Pay Off Dues
The buy back arrangement was implemented to assist landless natives,” Mr Finau said. “he repayment period stipulated in all the sale and purchase agreement is 30 years.
Tuesday 26 March 2019 | 12:59
Permanent Secretary for Lands and Mineral Resources Malakai Finau (close to camera) answering a question during the committee meeting yesterday. Photo: Parliament of Fiji
Of the 26 land owning units assisted through the Ministry of Land and Mineral Resources buy back arrangement, three have successfully paid off their dues amounting to $858,770.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Land and Mineral Resources Permanent Secretary Malakai Finau yesterday.
The Ministry of Lands presented its submissions on the audit report of the Management of Land Reform Programme to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
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Mr Finau was asked about the details of land administered under the Buy Back Scheme and what the current status of the buy back arrangement was.
“The buy back arrangement was implemented to assist landless natives,” Mr Finau said.
“The repayment period stipulated in all the sale and purchase agreement is 30 years.
“Three units have paid while the remaining 23 units are in the process of repayment.
“The total buy back payment received to date is $1.74634385 million.”
Meanwhile, Mr Finau also revealed they were targeting the end of this financial year to finalise the amendments to the ministry’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
“We have made some amendments to the SOP to address some improvement in areas that were not addressed initially,” he said.
“Some improvements done involve the inclusion of marketing processes that were previously not included in the 2015 Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources SOP, redesignation of land and deed of trust of landowners and financial statements.
“These are the new areas, which were not included in the initial Standard Operating Procedures.”
Edited by Percy Kean
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