The civil servants’ retirement age has been increased to 60 years and the contract based appointments of civil servants has been removed to allow for permanent contracts for the government workers.
Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka has made this announcement after yesterday’s cabinet decision.
Rabuka says cabinet has approved the revision of the retirement age of civil servants to 60 years from January 1st 2023.
Due to the shortage noted in certain areas, Rabuka says the increase in retirement age to 60 years is to be applicable for teachers, doctors and nurses from January 1st 2022.
Decision making in cabinet is by consensus, and there is no voting.
Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka has made this clear while speaking on the approved general rules and guidelines for ministers.
Rabuka says the ministers are encouraged to speak freely on any given proposal.
He says the first duty of ministers is to fully participate in discussions on policy matters, it is a collective responsibility and one of the fundamental principles of decision making in cabinet. Rabuka says no one can come out and say I did not agree with that because once you agree as a cabinet, that becomes government policy and is implemented.
The Prime Minister says policies determined by cabinet must then be actioned by the ministers and their respective ministries.
He also stresses that ministers are public office holders and are expected to conduct themselves in a manner befitting their role as servants of the people.
Rabuka says a minister should not use any information which comes to him or her as a minister during cabinet discussion for his or her private profit or for the benefit of their friends and close associates, and ministers must not solicit, encourage or accept gifts, benefits or favour either for themselves or for another person in connection with the performance or non performance of his or her official duties.
Cabinet agreed that any gifts received by a minister must be declared and recorded in a gift register in individual ministries.
Rabuka also stresses no cabinet matters and papers must be released without the prior approval of the Prime Minister.
The current arrangement on the Tertiary Education Loan Scheme will continue for Semester 1 this year and it will be extended to students who want to undertake foundation studies.
This has been confirmed by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka during an announcement following yesterday’s cabinet where he says more time has been given to the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and the Solicitor General’s Office to thoroughly consider the legal and financial implications of suspending the existing student loan repayments, writing off all outstanding students debts owed to the Government and to bring the necessary legislation and policy amendments back to cabinet.
The Prime Minister says TELS was not extended for foundation studies before.
Rabuka says they have also agreed to remove the vaccination requirement for TELS recipients and approve the deferments of debt repayments under the scheme to the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service until the relevant legislation is amended.
There will be a redeployment of funds from the 2022-2023 budget that will immediately allow the government to release an initial budget of $10 million to the University of the South Pacific.
Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka says the government is in discussions with USP hoping to agree to a repayment plan to be funded in the future budgets in addition to USP’s regular annual grant which will be restored in the 2023-2024 budget.
Rabuka confirms there will be no mini budget this year as funds will be redeployed to accommodate certain immediate priorities of the government.
He says the redeployment will also cater for additional funding requests received from ministries and other agencies.
Rabuka says this decision was made based on a submission by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad.
He further says in any financial year, if any ministry is unable to meet unbudgeted or unforeseen commitments from within their respective budget, there is a provision under the Financial Management Act of 2004 that enables the redeployment of available balances of other ministries to fund these unbudgeted or unforeseen commitments commonly known as additional provisions from within the budget but different heads.
Rabuka says the redeployment will also cater for the back to school $200 government support payment for students from early childhood to year 13 whose parents’ total gross income is below $50,000 per year.
He further adds other agencies that will benefit from the redeployment are the Fiji Servicemen After Care Fund, the Electoral Commission, the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, the Ministry of Public Works and Meteorological Services and the Fiji Roads Authority. It will also go towards the bus fare subsidy programme.
Cabinet Ministers are not allowed to receive gifts, they have to declare them.
During his national address today Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says there used to be a general guideline on the value of the gifts, and consumable ones needed to be gotten rid of very quickly especially those that will go bad if kept.
Rabuka further says there are some high valued ones and they have to be very careful of those, and they are not personal, and must stay in the government and be used by government when declared.
When questioned on the breaches in ministerial guidelines on usage of information for personal gain, Rabuka said he will use the media.
Rabuka says he had communicated instructions to them to be cautious at this time to mind what they say particularly to protect the confidentiality of the decisions made in cabinet.
Stay tuned for the latest news on our radio stations
