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The breaching of Residential Crown Leases was the most disturbing aspect of negligence by Fiji’s Lands Department, an audit has revealed.
According to the Public Accounts Committee’s latest report, the worst breaches were those recorded in the Residential Crown Land lessees who openly flouted the laxity in the system and failed to obtain approval of the Lands Director by:
• Sub-letting;
• Varying the use of the residential lease to commercial lease;
• Varying the use of the residential lease to industrial lease;
• Constructing additional buildings on the lease;
• Constructing extensions to the existing building;
• Lessees either deceased or migrated leaving no true state of the lease;
• Encroaching into Government road reserves illegally by sub-letting for commercial purposes; and
• Refusing to pay the re-assessed rates, etc.
The audit revealed that there were 995 Crown Leases with low rental levy ranging from 10 cents to $10 per year.
The low yearly rental leases were mainly for educational and religious purposes which had not been adjusted and reviewed to meet the current market rates.
It was also noted that the department was not aware of the breaches of lease conditions by the lessees because of poor monitoring and control system due to a shortage of resources and personnel.
