Navua’s $15k monthly cost raises concerns, Parliament told

As Government continues to pump in funds to support local councils, questions are now being raised about the true cost of managing areas that are not yet fully independent towns.

Parliament has been told that the Lami Town Council spends about $115,000 every month in overhead costs to manage operations in Navua, a town still operating under delegated authority.

The revelation was made during the committee’s review of Lami Town Council’s audited accounts for 2016 to 2018 yesterday in Parliament.

Council acting chief executive officer, Azam Khan explained that Navua is currently a “delegated area” under Lami Town Council and is not yet declared a municipality.

“In relation to the operations in the delegated area by Lami Town Council, that is Navua, currently we would be incurring per month an estimated $115,000 in overhead expenditure,” Mr Khan said.

He further told the committee that, aside from the $15,000 in overheads, there are also operational expenses.

“In the general operations we would be spending and committing funds and altogether this would be standing on or around $15,000 per month,” he said.

Opposition Member of Parliament, Alvick Maharaj questioned whether the cost was fully covered by revenue collected from Navua.

Mr Khan confirmed that the Government is heavily supporting the operations.

“Government is heavily subsidising the delegated area at this moment and we are appreciative of the fact that the subsidy has been increased in the last budget,” he said.

Meanwhile, 78 per cent of Lami Town Council’s total budget goes towards wages and salaries, as most services such as garbage collection, grass cutting and drain cleaning are done in-house.