Bula
The big one on the front page of The Fiji Times for Thursday, May 23 is bound to attract a lot of attention. The Emoluments Committee has recommended that all ministers should have a salary of $200,000.
The Committee states the Minister for Finance wages should be cut from the current $235,000 to $200,00 and other ministers be elevated from the current $185,000 to $200,000.
The Committee states Assistant Ministers salaries should go up from $90,000 to $120,000 and that all Members of Parliament salary be increased from the current $50,000 to $100,000, the Speakers wages to also go up from the current $150,000 to $200,000 and the Leader of Opposition to have a salary of $200,000 from the current $120,000.
The Committee has recommended no changes for the salaries of the President ($130,000), the Prime Minister ($328,750).
In the second story, a US-based nonprofit organisation that specialises in drug rehabilitation programs could soon be setting up a rehab centre in Fiji. We have spoken about this for the past three years, and the signs are there that this may become a reality.
The Foundation for Drug Free World International has been in talks with government to train locals in manning a professional rehab centre. With a 98 per cent success rate, the foundation’s ambassador, Jessica Brown, has seen the growing threat of drugs in Fiji and what await local drug users if the problem is not addressed.
And we also have something on the Government’s present two-decade-old Financial Management Information System (FMIS) and 40-year-old payroll system which have undergone a $12million upgrade with the integrated system on schedule to go live on August 1 (2024). More on Page 13.
