NON-government organisations and volunteer groups that offer their services to the development of outer islands like Rotuma are a big help to the government, says Commissioner Eastern Colonel Netani Rika.
Speaking to The Fiji Times at the government station in Ahau, Col. Rika said a recent survey was carried out by the United Nations Development Program in collaboration with a lecturer from the University of the South Pacific.
"The lady from USP came to gather information and gave out questionnaires on the needs of the island and other issues like population," he said.
"We had meetings to discuss this and the condition was for us to facilitate them and at the end of their survey, we would also be able to access their survey and results. This is a recent survey so the information would definitely be useful to our work."
He said there were some who depended on government hand-outs instead of doing their bit to maintain the projects.
Col. Rika said the government had put a halt to assistance for the construction of community halls. Instead, the focus now is on housing development.