Gov’t compensates previous Western provincial executive

BY BEN BILUA

The national government has compensated members of Western province’s former executive.

The Minister’s Ministry of Provincial Government’s decision to dissolve the previous Western Provincial Assembly last year has cost the government huge money in compensation payments.

This was following a court order which demanded the government to compensate former premier, Mesepitu, and his executive which was prematurely dissolved on 13th June last year.

Former Deputy Premier who is now the speaker of Western Province, Ramrakha Talasasa told Island Sun in an inclusive interview that the outgoing executive of Western Provinces received their payment last week.

He said the payments for the outgoing executive allowance began June 13th, 2022 to January 2023 when the new provincial assembly was formed.

“The funds we received were our normal allowances for the month of June 2022 to January 2023. We are still waiting for the special entitlements that are legally ours in accordance with the Provincial Government Act,” Talasasa said.

He said a bunch of leaders in the last assembly already knew that Seleso’s decision was inaccurate as far as the Provincial Government Act is concerned.

“We know the law so we challenge the decision and the result comes in our favor and now the government is paying a hefty price for its poor decision-making,” Talasasa said.

Island Sun understands that there were arguments going back and forth when the Ministry of Provincial Government decided to dissolve the previous assembly.

The arguments landed the outgoing Western Provincial and the Government in Court.

After deliberation on the matter, the court concluded that the Minister’s decision was null and void contrary to the specific provision provided under the Provincial Government Act.

According to Talasasa, the outgoing Provincial Assembly was supposed to be acting as caretaker until the new executive is formed earlier this year.

“This is where the government lost it. The provincial government Act did states that any assembly must take on a caretaker role until a new executive is formed.

“This did not happen in our case and now the government is paying the price,” he said.

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