Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad and Ministry of Civil Service Permanent Secretary Parmesh Chand

The Construction Implementation Unit which was established following Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016 will be disbanded as certain discrepancies have been uncovered in its systems and processes.

According to Finance Minister, the unit over the years started handling projects within every ministry and statutory organizations.

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad says changes are being made to ensure better accountability and transparency.

“We believe that the best way to deal with repair, maintenance handling these projects like before was done by the Public Service Commission and by different ministries so we are in the process of making that change and that will be done so that we have better accountability, better transparency otherwise you have a unit, you have one or two people who look at it.”

Professor Prasad who has been highlighting about wastage since coming into power believes that certain wastage occurred due to the processes involved.

He says a lot of things happened during that time that shouldn’t have happened and as a result a lot of the wastage took place.

He says there were projects that could have been completed at certain amount went up adding that there were variations in terms of the actual tender amount that was approved.

Ministry of Civil Service Permanent Secretary Parmesh Chand says certain functions of the Construction Implementation Unit has already been taken over by the Ministry of Civil Service.

“We have taken over the functions pertaining to office accommodation and government quarters, the construction implementation aspects should be taken over in appropriateness of time by the Public Works Department. Meanwhile there is a number of wrapping up to be done, there’s a couple of court houses and police stations under construction plus pending dispute on Lautoka swimming pool and obviously the incomplete Ba sports stadium. So all that are being attended to while we disbanded this unit over a period of time.”

Chand confirms that majority of the CIU staff will be maintained and most are now working under the Ministry of Civil Service however he confirms the post of the Director CIU will be relooked at.

He says that the government machinery is already structured and there is no need for unit such as CIU.