FISHING licences that need to be renewed are to be submitted to the Commissioner Northern's office two to three days in advance for quicker processing results.
Divisional planning officer north Alipate Bolalevu said applications were often backlogged at the commissioner's office because of late submission and the short notice that their office was often given for the processing of fishing licence renewal.
Mr Bolalevu said fishermen had no reason to blame the office for late processing of their renewal applications since the office dealt with other pressing issues in the division while they had the whole of December last year to submit their renewal papers.
"The divisional commissioners are authorised to approve licence renewals however due to the short notice that we get the commissioner has at times delegated this task as he is busy with other pressing issues," Mr Bolalevu said.
"People are too lax when they should have been busy renewing these licences in December. We receive more than 20 applications every day from the provinces of Bua, Cakaudrove and Macuata and therefore seek their understanding in allowing us the time to process their applications," he said.
Meanwhile divisional fisheries officer north Joji Vakawaletabua told this newspaper in an earlier interview that they wait for the permits to be processed by the commissioner's office before they issued licences.
"The ministry will not accept the fact that fishing licences are still to be renewed by our department since they were given ample time last year to renew their licences," he said.