Stir In Fiji Civil Service
pp. 16-17 · Read in the full issue
A Revolutionary Report By Reorganisation Committee
From Our Own Correspondent.
Suva, Aug. 31.
A PPOINTED by Sir Murchison Fletcher to make recommendations for the reconstruction of the Fiji Civil Service, the Reorganisation Committee has at last produced its report; and certain ranks of the service have been seething with indignation since it has been made public.
As considerable extra expenditure for leave passages is involved, it is anti cipated that there will be lively debate when the report comes before the Legis lative Council for discussion. The Council has been summoned to meet on Sept. 24.
A lay reading of the report seems to reveal that there is to be even greater discrimination between the privileges of Home and Colonial appointees than there has been in the past. Judging by the remarks of those in the Clerical Service, this branch has been hardest hit.
Under the old regime, clerks joining the Service in Fiji could rise as high as £6OO a year; but now it appears that only a few will ever get as far as £4OO, while the majority will remain on £270, the present maximum for a third class clerk.
This virtually means that there will be no inducement for locally-born European youths to enter the Service. Consequently, this will mean an increase in the number of Indians and Fijians employed.
In the past, officers have been entitled to furlough every three years. Under the Committee’s recommendations, senior officers will get leave every three years, and other ranks only every four years.
There has been much comment on the fact that almost every departmental head will have a substantial salary increase if the recommendations of the Committee are adopted. In this respect, several ano malies creep in, but the most glaring is in the Judicial and Legal Department.
At present, the Chief Justice draws a salary of £1,200 a year and also receives £4OO a year from the Western Pacific High Commission. The Attorney General, who is an officer of the Fiji Service only, draws at present £l,lOO. The Committee recommends that the Attorney General’s salary be increased to £1,250, but makes no recommendation with regard to the Chief Justice. If this goes through, it will mean that an officer of the Supreme Court will be drawing more than the head of the Court, so far as the Fiji Service is concerned.
Allowances paid to various officers for special qualifications are in most in stances to be abolished. In several in stances, Government Medical Officers, who at present have the privilege of private practice, are to be denied this. Many fore cast that this will mean the wholesale resignation of capable Medical Officers, who will do much better as private prac titioners in some populous districts.
There has been bitter complaint re garding other proposals in connection with the Medical Department. At present, there is a Medical Officer at Lautoka and one at Nadroga, 67 miles away. It is proposed to station both these men at Lautoka. What is going to happen in the case of a serious accident at Sigatoka, Nadroga, or miles up the Sigatoka Valley, with the nearest doctor sixty miles away!
It is proposed to remove the M.O. from Savu Savu altogether and place this district under the Taveuni Medical Officer. The report points out that, though there is 50 miles of open sea between the two places, one doctor could quite easily handle the two districts if a suitable vessel were provided. The report naively adds that the “suitable vessel” could also be used by the District Commissioner for administrative purposes.
Those who know Fiji, and what 50 miles of open sea can be like in this Group, ridicule the idea and ask what is going to happen if the doctor, in Taveuni, is urgently wanted at Savu Savu and there happens to be a hurricane blowing up. This is altogether apart from the consideration that the District Commis sioner might have the boat away on an administrative tour.
Those are a few of apparent anomalies which appear in the report, which has been the principal topic of conversation in Fiji Service circles ever since it appeared.
Of course, it is only a report and re commendations as yet, and it remains to be seen what will be done with it when it comes before the Legislative Council.