The Rakiraki Town Council had submitted 20 applications to the Small Claims Tribunal and two to the magistrate’s court involving defaulting ratepayers.
Rakiraki Town Council CEO Sailosi Sawana also told the Standing Committee on Public Accounts yesterday that it did not cost the council much to refer these matters to the tribunal, except to pay for the application.
And for the matter before the courts, the cases were still at the mention stage, and it will cost them money when the matters were at the hearing stage because then the council would have to hire the services of a solicitor.
He made those comments while responding to a question on costing involved that was posed by committee member Aseri Radrodro.
Mr Sawana said for matter in the tribunal, there had been an agreement reached for the ratepayers to pay up on overdue arrears.
Ministry of Local Government’s manager Finance Navin Chandra said they were seeking legal opinion from the Solicitor General’s office in terms of assistance it can offer to the municipal council.
“There has been discussions done by our teams; they’re having regular meetings on a weekly basis in terms of discussing operational issues of the council,” Mr Chandra said in response to Mr Radrodro who had asked about the ministry’s assistance in terms of providing solicitors when needed.
