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‘A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself’

Tell the truth

Dharmendra Kumar, Suva

Mr Gavoka must stop lying to the people of Fiji that education was free since Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s era. I went to a Government school and clearly remember we paid school fees, building fees, bought our textbooks and paid the hostel accommodation fees.

What free school fees is he talking about? Free school fees started when FijiFirst came into Government. He also said, “We will provide free tertiary across the board, Universities, technical college.” Can he tell the people of Fiji how he is going to implement this in these difficult economic times?

He will no way be able to generate any revenue so is he going to increase taxes or cut back on the budget.

Mr.Gavoka needs to be very clear when he makes promises and give us the whole picture, not half-truth. I respect people who tell the truth. Election is in 2022 and lies have once again started.

Nasinu rates Satish Nakched, Suva

I was astounded to learn from the CEO and the Special Administrator of Nasinu Town Council this week through the media about the town rate arrears amounting to $9 million and still escalating.

The blame is levelled directly at the residents of the municipality as some had not paid anything for a long time.

However, this is only one side of the problem and I believe the justification given by the municipality is just for job survival and they are dearly holding on to this lucrative post.

The conceptualization I believe of the council is that they sit in the comfort of their offices and expect the ratepayers to come in and pay up. Since their proposed concept did not materialize a scapegoat theory was introduced at the expense of the ratepayers despite having an in house so called legal team.

I believe there was a lack of consultation initiated by the municipality either in groups or individually as the defaulters were given a generic instruction to pay up without counselling the most valuable stakeholders of the organisation.

I believe that a more effective method was to engage the residents individually and work out a payment plan based on the financial status of the ratepayers.

The organisation must have a target system and a monitoring mechanism to gauge the progress of the rate collection. In extreme situations with people who can pay but opt to default then as a recovery process legal action must be initiated.

Over all these years I do not know of a single case where a person was taken to court despite having legal authority to do that.

The municipality has also mentioned the informal settlement problems, but such illegal occupation continues to grow due to the ineffective enforcement and the inability to protect their jurisdiction. The current Nasinu Town Council had inherited the mess from the previous management but did not do anything different to rectify the situation.

They do not have the ability to provide many of the necessities and the performance will deteriorate further in due course.

The relevant Minister must intervene and salvage the biggest municipality in the country by implementing a leaner operation and engaging a robust team. Many thanks to the Suva City Council for collecting garbage in Nasinu.