THE revised scope of works of the yet to be completed Lautoka swimming pool could be completed by the end of August.
The Lautoka City Council was forced to review the project plan after the Local Government Ministry’s submission for further funding under the 2026-2027 National Budget was rejected by the Finance Ministry.
Finance Minister Esrom Immanuel has since explained funding for the project, which received $1.9million last year, was redirected.
Lautoka City Council special administrators’ council chairperson Taitusi Rasoki said the new plan would dictate the construction work that would be carried out on the pool.
“These works will be laid out by our revised scope works. As we speak, our council officers are working on that reviewed plan and we hope to have it done by the end of the month,” said Mr Rasoki.
He said the council had yet to receive any word from the Ministry of Local Government of any plans for the funding of the leftover works.
“All we have been asked to do by the ministry was to revise the scope of work which we are doing at the moment. We have a consultant that we are working closely with who is looking at the overall plan of the construction work and looking at every detail and the different stages that we need to go through to complete the project.
“Again, I have to reiterate that the council from the very beginning has been the facilitator of this project.”
Mr Rasoki added discussions on the original plans for the project such as establishing an international standard swimming pool has yet to be revisited.
“The discussions about having an international standard swimming pool is quite controversial and when we came in, we inherited that.
“What we were told when we came in was to put that controversial side of the project aside, turn a new chapter and work towards completing it. The controversial side of the project was left to the other authorities like the ministry and FICAC.”
Questions sent to the ministry and FICAC on the status of investigations last month remained unanswered.
