Fiji’s Housing Minister Premila Kumar told a news conference on Saturday that a family who built a home at Waidamudamu settlement in Nausori also owned another property in Davuilevu, which they offered for rent to a government permanent secretary.
She says this has prompted the ministry to start developing an informal settlement lot allocation policy so that stringent measures are put in place to prevent people from cheating the system.
Mrs Kumar said there were cases where people would put out their properties for rent before moving into informal settlements.
“There are people who build homes in Waidamudamu, but they live in Davuilevu and they try to put out their places for rent,” Mrs Kumar said.
“And to who? They were offering their place to the permanent secretary.
“We are also aware of cases of a family who have built houses in three informal settlements, they live in Suva, build one house in Jittu Estate, build in Millennium and one in Sakoca and one somewhere else.”
She said some people living in informal settlements have been the eyes and ears of the ministry.
“Some of the recent cases you may have heard that nowadays people are using the term caretaker,” Mrs Kumar said.
“In other terms, they have a property in Labasa, they move to Suva, build homes and they rent it out.”
