|
Cabinet has approved for the Rarotonga local Government (Repeal) Bill to be forwarded to Parliament for enactment.
The Bill gives effect to the decision of Cabinet earlier this month to abolish the Vaka Councils.
However the Bill will not come into effect until February 8 2008.
The move to abolish the council was a sudden one causing fury among the three mayors of Takitumu, Te-au-o Tonga and Puaikura.
Te-au-o-Tonga mayoress Mere Raita said "I'm angry and it's childish."
The three met with Internal Affairs Minister Ngamau Munokoa at 9am in the morning and the scrapping was announced. This occurred an hour before she presented her submission to Cabinet.
Munokoa told the media that the Vaka Councils were not doing their work cleaning and clearing community roadsides, streams and road drainages.
She said Internal affairs can manage and carry out the work from savings, from getting rid of the councils.
The three mayors say they are very much involved with community projects but the current national budget of $450,000 doesn't go a long way.
The money comes from what is known as the Payment on Behalf of the Crown in the appropriation of the Internal Affairs.
Other than the money that the councils receive for wages the money is allocated to the vaka councils for cleaning up the roadsides.
Puaikura mayor Robert Heather says "We are doing a lot more than that".
Source: Govmedia
|
