Board chief salaries cost more than $944,000 – FBC News

The total cost of salaries and allowances for special administrators and acting general managers of the city council from January to November of this year is $944,670.68.

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

Kumar had asked the minister to inform the House of the list of boards headed by an executive chairman – including salary levels and dates of appointment, as well as total expenditure, including allowance, salary, travel allowance, meals and accommodation, for special administrators. and executive chairs.

In response, Nalumisa said there were no executive chairmen because the ministry had not consented to the creation of a new position within the council structure.

He explained that municipal councils currently have special directors acting as CEOs.

“The councils where a special administrator acts as CEO are: Suva City Council, Nasinu City Council and Tavua City Council,” he said.

Nalumisa said the salary levels of acting CEOs were calculated in the same way as in the civil service, where 95 percent of the difference between the salary of the special administrator and that of the CEO is added to the base salary of the special administrator.

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

Acting CEO of Nasinu Municipal Council, Felix Magnus, was appointed on July 4 this year and his annual salary was $79,549.80, while Acting CEO of Tavua Municipal Council, Sireli Korovulavula, received a stipend of $12,000 per year as his acting CEO salary was pending HSC approval.

Nalumisa said the reason behind the appointment of acting CEOs for the councils was to ensure streamlining of municipal services, improved infrastructure development, strengthening revenue streams, ensuring financial stability and ensure the preparation of annual accounts and the publication of annual reports.

He said before the appointment of the acting CEOs, the ministry 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 had engaged the services of KPMG Advisory (Fiji) Pte Limited, as a recruitment agency to assist boards in recruiting CEOs.