Special administrators’ forum

Dimity Fifer, Permanent Secretary for Local Government

In response to a letter by Sukha Singh (FS 11/12) the Minister for Local Government hosted a meeting of special administrators on Monday, December 9, 2019, in Lami.

The special administrators have accepted the significant task of driving the reform of municipal councils and are committed to improving local government and all councils will focus on increasing communication with ratepayers in the new year. We know that residents and businesses have good ideas that will be carefully considered by the special administrators as they improve council operations.

There are many ways for every citizen and investor to engage with councils and many people are helpfully doing so.

A highlight of Monday’s meeting was the presentations from the chairs of the 13 municipal councils, who talked about their specific priorities and highlighted early successes.

All the special administrators were interested to learn how their colleagues across the country are approaching shared challenges.

Special administrators are already co-operating well and leveraging skills across councils and this meeting enabled strategic conversations about how expertise and experience can be exchanged and shared services provide more efficient and cost-effective operations.

Fijians deserve better performing sustainable councils and these will be delivered by the teams of experienced and accomplished special administrators with the support of the Ministry of Local Government.