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STANDING COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES REVIEW REPORT OF THE CONSOLIDATED 2011, 2012 & 2013 MINISTRY OF LANDS & MINERAL RESOURCES ANNUAL REPORTS PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI Parliamentary Paper No 32 of 2021 March, 2021 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Published and Printed by the Department of Legislature, Parliament House, SUVA Table of Contents CHAIRPERSON’S FOREWORD .......................................................................... 3 COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP ............................................................................. 5 LIST OF ACRONYMS ........................................................................................... 6 RECOMMENDATION ........................................................................................... 7 1.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 7 1.1 PROCEDURE AND PROGRAM .............................................................. 7 2.0 ABOUT THE MINISTRY OF LANDS & MINERAL RESOURCES IN 2011, 2012 &2013 ..................................................................................................... 8 3.0 COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. 9 4.0 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS) ............................... 9 4.1 GENDER EQUALITY ANALYSIS – SDG 5 ........................................... 9 5.0 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................10 6.0 COMMITTEE MEMBERS’ SIGNATURE ..............................................10 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................11 2 CHAIRPERSON’S FOREWORD The Committee commended the Ministry on its targets and achievements in relation to Key Output Areas (KOA’s) / Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) achieved from 2011 to 2013.
The Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources is a key facilitator and contributor to the nation’s socio-economic development within Government’s vision of Building a Better Fiji for All.

For the period under review, the Ministry continuously aligned itself to Government’s overarching objectives which were explicitly defined in the People’s Charter for Change, Peace and Progress, the Strategic Framework for Change and the Roadmap for Democracy and Sustainable Socio-Economic Development 2009-2014.
It was worthy to note that in 2011 in its annual corporate plan, the Ministry progressed towards achieving Government’s Land Reform initiative and continued to facilitate the development of the country’s minerals and groundwater resources that make significant contribution towards the nation’s economic growth.
The period under review, particularly in 2012, the Committee noted that the Ministry had undergone re-structural adjustments within the organization but nonetheless, a significant achievement rate of 82.29% was the highlight during the said period.

Thus, the 2013 annual corporate plan, the Committee noted that the Ministry enhanced its working environment and networking with other agencies to improve service delivery and to increase achievements on government development in Land Reforms.
All was made possible through the support of the 2013 budget that outlined key outputs of the Ministry’s two core departments.

At this juncture, I wish to thank the Permanent Secretary, Ms Raijeli Taga and her staff for their assistance in this review process.

I also extend my gratitude to my Committee colleagues namely: Hon.

Jale Sigarara (Deputy Chairperson) and Hon.

Alexander O’Connor, Hon.Mitieli Bulanauca, Hon.

Peceli Vosanibola, Hon.

Jese Saukuru (Alternate Opposition Member).


3 I, on behalf of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, commend the Review of the Consolidated Annual Reports for the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources 2011, 2012 & 2013 to Parliament.

…………………………….

Hon.

Sanjay Kirpal Chairperson 4 COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP The substantive and alternate members of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources are as follows: Hon.

Sanjay Kirpal Chairperson Hon.

Jale Sigarara Deputy Chairperson Hon.


Mitieli Bulanauca Opposition Member Hon.

Alexander O’Connor Government Member Hon.

Peceli Vosanibola Opposition Member Hon.
Jese Saukuru Alternate Opposition Member 5 LIST OF ACRONYMS Abbreviation ACP KOA KPI MLMR SDG SO Phrase Annual Corporate Plan Key Output Areas Key Performance Indicator Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources Sustainable Development Goal Standing Order 6 RECOMMENDATION The Standing Committee on Natural Resources has conducted a review of the Ministry of Lands & Mineral Resources (MLMR) Consolidated Annual Reports for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and recommends that Parliament take note of its report.
1.0 INTRODUCTION The Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources Annual Reports 2011.2012 and 2013 was tabled in Parliament during the 31st August, 2020 Parliament sitting and referred to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources for scrutiny.

The Committee proceeded with its mandatory function legislated under Standing Order 109(2) (c) which allows the Standing Committee on Natural Resources to examine matters related to forestry, agriculture, mining, environment, fisheries, water and marine services.
Standing Orders 110(1)(c) further authorizes the Standing Committee to scrutinize the government departments with responsibility within the committee's subject area, including by investigating, inquiring into, and making recommendations relating to any aspect of such a department's administration, legislation or proposed legislative program, budget, rationalization, restructuring, functioning, organization, structure and policy formulation.
A Standing Committee must report to Parliament any other matter referred to or initiated by the Committee, as soon as it has completed its considerations and deliberations as stipulated under SO 121 (1) (b).

1.1 PROCEDURE AND PROGRAM The Committee proceeded with its scrutiny and formulated questions which were sent to MLMR to respond to.
The questions were basically on the challenges faced by the Ministry during the period under review, achievements, operational review, legislations in place, progress on the Ministry’s initiatives.

The Ministry’s responses were received by the members and was incorporated into the Committees report for final presentation to parliament.
7 2.0 ABOUT THE MINISTRY OF LANDS & MINERAL RESOURCES IN 2011, 2012 &2013 The Ministry of Lands & Mineral Resources is made up of two Departments, namely the Department of Lands & Survey and the Department of Mineral Resources.

The Department of Lands and Survey is responsible for the administration, development and management of all State land activities.
Functions and responsibilities of the department are further categorized into:  State Land Management Division  Land Use Unit  Land Survey Division  Land Valuation Division  Corporate Services Division The Department of Mineral Resources oversees and facilitates development of the country’s mineral and ground water resources.

The department has four divisions which constitutes the overall mining and groundwater resources.
These are namely:  Geological Services Division  Geological Survey & Information Division  Mining Division One of the achievements and major highlights of the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources in 2011 was the opening of the Nawailevu Bauxite in Bua and the signing of the Vatukoula Social Assistance Trust Fund as reflected in the 2011 annual report.
It was also noted that the Lands Administration Division managed to surpass its annual target of 3500 by processing 4681 legal documents which was in line with the Ministry’s ACP targets for 2013.

Also the Ministry developed a draft SOP for Lands Administration during the stated year.

8 3.0 COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDATIONS 1.


RECOMMENDATION To safeguard public interests from unscrupulous land dealers, MLMR may consider publicizing Bi-Annually trends or averages of Values of major land uses (Commercial, Industrial, Residential and Agriculture) to start with, for their information for level of value that they should be expecting.

It will give the public some information and confidence for selling or buying.
Private Valuers still provide professional services to their clients whether buyers and sellers, financiers, and any other entity to meet their own requirements on value.

It would be a service MLMR can provide through the Valuation Department which would be well appreciated by the members of the public at large.

= 2.

RECOMMENDATION The Committee recommends proper editing of future annual reports by staff before submitting to parliament for further scrutiny.
For example: (1)The Ministry to include output 13 on page 6 on KOA or to appear as output 5 on page 18.

(2) 2012 annual report Page 30 – whereby item k Note 3 appears after Note 4, and item g Note 3 to be shifted left under item f. 3.

RECOMMENDATION The Ministry continued to be challenged by outdated processes and the committee recommends that it should review and update in order to improve its services to be able to meet the demands of its clients.

4.
4.

RECOMMENDATION The Committee strongly recommends that future annual reports of the Ministry of Lands & Mineral Resources be submitted in a timely manner.

4.0 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs) 4.1 GENDER EQUALITY ANALYSIS – SDG 5 The Committee noted that there was no information on Gender provided in the annual reports for the period under review.

9 5.0 CONCLUSION The overall performance of the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources for the period under review was satisfactory.
However, the Committee is hopeful that in future the Ministry will submit its annual report to Parliament in a timely manner.

6.0 COMMITTEE MEMBERS’ SIGNATURE We, the Members of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, hereby agree with the contents of this report: Hon.

Sanjay Kirpal (Chairperson) Hon.

Jale Sigarara (Deputy Chairperson) Hon.

Alexander O’Connor Hon.Mitieli Bulanauca (Member) (Member) Hon.

Peceli Vosanibola Hon.


Jese Saukuru (Member) (Alternate Member) 10 APPENDICES Published written evidence Written evidence and supplementary information was received from the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources and can be viewed on the Parliament website at the following link: http://www.parliament.gov.fj/committees/standing-committee-on-natural-resources/ 11