The case against Freesoul Real Estate Development (Fiji) PTE Ltd has been adjourned to allow the State to clarify the appointment of environment personnel giving evidence in the case.
In December last year, company lawyer Daniel Toganivalu objected to the environment officers’ involvement as he claimed they were not gazetted inspectors, as required under the Environment Amendment Act of 2005.
While appearing before magistrate Seini Puamau via a Skype sitting yesterday, the state lawyer was ordered to clarify whether the two personnel were gazetted inspectors.
Magistrate Puamau said even though she had received affidavits of clarification on the designations of the two personnel, it was not clear whether they were gazetted.
Mr Toganivalu maintains that the two personnel were not inspectors even though they were contracted as environment officers who could carry out environment inspections.
The company is charged with two separate counts of undertaking unauthorised developments and one count of failure to comply with a prohibition notice under the Environment Management Act 2005 Freesoul denies allegations of unauthorised developments on Malolo Island in the Mamanuca Group.
The case has been adjourned to July 29
