(oB) Namosi House: What Goes Around Comes Around

POWERFUL NEW FEATURE: TRY OUT "SEARCH THE BLOG"

Money raised from ordinary Fijians by the country's 14 provincial councils, together with loans obtained from the Development Bank or another quasi-government entity, has often been invested in building multi-storey office blocks in Suva. Government sometimes guarantees these loans and the buildings once completed are often rented out to Government departments. What is left from the gross rentals goes towards provincial scholarships and similar "development" projects. For the most part it's been a "cosy" arrangement by which ethnic Fijian governments have fed money back to the Fijian "establishment."Those at the business-end of the arrangement benefit but few benefits trickle back to the villages where the initial money was raised. Only too often those entrusted with the money are accused of dishonest, corrupt, or at least questionable, behaviour. Whether this is the case with Namosi House* is unclear, but FijiLive thinks there is something a little strange. To read the whole article, click here. Read more...
The sheer number of overlapping ethnic Fijian and quasi-government public institutions (often with relatively inexperienced people handling large sums of money, and with too few checks and balances) creates untold opportunities for malpractice. What started as a means to increase the number of Fijians in business and assist rural development, has too often ended with a small number of people "milking the system" for personal gain. On wonders whether the business model needs revisiting.

* Namosi, some 40 or so kilometers west of Suva, is Fiji's smallest province, with limited natural resources. Under the 1997 Constitution, however, it had one Fijian Communal seat in Parliament for its 3,340 registered voters, the same number as Nadroga/Navosa with 19,044 registered voters (Walsh Fiji: an Encyclopaedic Atlas. See advert by scrolling down the left column.)Photo: Fiji Live.