[Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji/ Facebook]

The total salaries and allowances costs for Municipal Council special administrators and acting chief executive officers from January to November this year amounted to $944,670.68.

This was revealed by Local Government Minister Maciu Nalumisa in response to a written question by Opposition parliamentarian Premila Kumar.

Kumar had asked the Minister to inform the House as to the list of councils run by an executive chair – including the salary levels and dates of appointment, and total expenditure, inclusive of allowance, salary, travel allowance, meals and accommodation, for special administrators and executive chairs.

In response, Nalumisa said there were no executive chairs as the Ministry did not consent to the creation of a new position within the council structure.

He explained that Municipal Councils currently had special administrators acting as CEOs.

“The councils where a special administrator is acting at CEO are: Suva City Council, Nasinu Town Council and Tavua Town Council,” he said.

Nalumisa said salary levels of Acting CEOs were calculated similar to the civil service, where 95 percent of the difference of the salary of the special administrator and the CEO is added to the base salary of the special administrator.

He said the Suva City Council Acting CEO Tevita Boseiwaqa was appointed on July 4, 2024 and his annual salary, as approved by the Higher Salaries Commission, was $159,386.

Nasinu Town Council Acting CEO Felix Magnus was appointed on July 4 this year and his annual salary was $79,549.80, while Tavua Town Council Acting CEO Sireli Korovulavula was on an allowance of $12,000 per annum as his salary for Acting CEO was pending approval from the HSC.

Nalumisa said the rationale behind appointing Acting CEOs for councils was to ensure the streamlining of municipal services, improvement of infrastructure development, strengthening of revenue streams, to bring about financial stability and to ensure the preparation of annual accounts and publication of annual reports.

He said prior to the appointment of the Acting CEOs, the Ministry had sought legal advice from the Office of the Solicitor-General.

Nalumisa said the decision to appoint Acting CEOs for the three councils was an interim arrangement and the appointments would end as soon as the councils were able to recruit qualified and suitable CEOs.

He said they have engaged the services of KPMG Advisory (Fiji) Pte Limited, as the recruiting agency to support the councils in the recruitment of CEOs.