THE Lautoka City Council received only $5.5million of the promised $12.6m from the Government and had to fork out an additional $1.06m to fund the swimming pool project between 2017 and 2020.
This was revealed by former council horticulturalist, Shri Charan, who has come out expressing concern over the “missing” millions the Government says it spent on the ongoing project.
Mr Charan was LCC’s horticulturalist from 1992 to 2020 before retiring. He returned as a consultant in 2022 and has been working closely with LCC since.
He said when the project started receiving government funds in 2017, he would attend council meetings where issues and detailed financial accounts of the project were discussed.
He said this week’s announcement in Parliament by Local Government Minister Maciu Nalumisa that the project would be completed in 2026 prompted him to share his experience.
“I think it’s time that people know the truth,” said Mr Charan.
“We only received $5,574,247.13, which is less than half of what they had said they would be paying the council.”
According to financial details provided by Mr Charan, a total of $1,750,000 was received by the council in 2017.
“The money was taken from the ministry’s (Local Government) Challenge Fund, and we did receive that money.”
However, budget estimates of that year (2016-2017) show only $750,000 was allocated for the project by the Government.
“In the 2017-2018 budget, we were allocated $3million,” said Mr Charan.
Budget estimates confirm an allocation of $3m, but he said the council never saw that money.
“Our CEO (the late Jone Nakauvadra) was in contact with the ministry every week asking about the money, but it never came.”
Mr Charan’s claim of delayed payments is supported by the Auditor General’s Report of Municipal Councils tabled in Parliament last year when it stated the “Council had properly recorded the swimming pool costs with payment vouchers and supporting documents, but allocation of funds was incorrectly posted”.
The report revealed that apart from delays with the contractor and inadequate fund management by the lead consultant, payment delays from the Government were also an issue.
“There were delays in releasing funds from the Government after the inception of the CIU (Construction Implementation Unit). Thus, there was no further work done after September 2019,” the report said.
Mr Charan said the CIU was a huge roadblock for the council and did not release funds despite the submission of reports it requested.
The CIU has since been slowly dismantled by Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad who said there were discrepancies uncovered in its systems and processes.
“In the next budget (2019-2020), the Government said they would allocate $4,100,000. We only received $324,247.13 that year.”
Work never continued in 2020 after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Lautoka.
Mr Charan said that was the same year he retired.
“My biggest question is where did the rest of the money go?
“The contractors were on our backs to make the payments, but it was coming in late.
“So, through a council management meeting, we had to dip into council funds hoping the money would come and it would be reimbursed.”
In 2023, Mr Nalumisa said in Parliament the swimming pool was initially allocated $2million before the funding skyrocketed to $7.8m in December 2017.
The amount reached $12.6m by 2020; the funds sourced from the Ministry of Local Government’s Challenge and Investment Fund.
The following budgets had allocations for two peer reviews ordered by the past government and the Coalition with both assessments generating a total allocation of $249,050 in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 budgets.
Between 2023 and 2025, an additional $6.1m was allocated by the Coalition.
Questions sent to Mr Nalumisa on Wednesday and former finance minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum on Thursday remained unanswered.
The LCC said it would respond to the claims next week.
Attempts to also reach former CIU head Muhammed Shah proved futile.
