6 Nov 2017

Fiji's Rabuka wants to train more local leaders

2:39 pm on 6 November 2017

The leader of Fiji's opposition SODELPA party Sitiveni Rabuka has promised to beef up the training of local people in the wake of another expat civil servant resignation.

Former Fiji prime minister and two-time coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka.

Sitiveni Rabuka Photo: AFP PHOTO / Torsten BLACKWOOD

The government announced at the weekend the CEO of the Land Transport Authority Carmine Piantedosi had resigned due to personal and family reasons and was expected to leave for Australia soon.

He started in April this year.

The Permanent Secretary for Infrastructure and Transport Paul Bayly resigned at the end of last month after taking up office in March last year.

Last June, John Hutchinson resigned from the Fiji Roads Authority after a year in the job.

Mr Hutchinson said he'd left because the board and the government had unrealistic expectations about how to repair the country's transport infrastructure.

Mr Rabuka says if elected to power SODELPA would accelerate the training and development of local professionals to manage and operate government departments and statutory authorities.

He says the Fiji First Government had relied heavily on expatriate personnel and companies and its merit based system for the civil service was only a facade.

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