1. LABOUR MINISTER TO HOST ROADSHOW IN NASINU – The Minister for Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Jone Usamate will continue the Central Eastern Division roadshow in Nasinu this afternoon.
2. GOVERNMENT TEAM TO BE PART OF ROTUMA DAY CELEBRATIONS – The Prime Minister’s Office permanent secretary, Lt. Col Pio Tikoduadua will be chief guest at this year’s Rotuma Day celebration on the remote island. Rotuma Day is celebrated on May 13 by Rotumans everywhere, especially back home.
3. BULK PURCHASE BRINGS IN REVENUE FOR GOVERNMENT – Fiji Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Services under the Ministry of Health is proud to announce a profit of $434,917.56 in its Bulk Purchase Scheme.
1. LABOUR MINISTER TO HOST ROADSHOW IN NASINU
The Minister for Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Jone Usamate will continue the Central Eastern Division road show in Nasinu this afternoon.
The second public consultation for the division will take place at Rishikul College in Nasinu from 5.30pm to 7.30pm today.
Minister Usamate said his ministry was providing this opportunity for members of the public to meet directly with him and other senior officials from the ministry.
He added the Bainimarama Government was focused towards assisting the workers of Fiji.
“People in the greater Nasinu area should use this opportunity to come and meet the ministry team to raise the issues they may have or new issues. Government is focused on meeting people’s needs and has taken this step of bringing its consultation right to the people,” Mr Usamate said.
“I look forward to meeting members of the public and to listen to the issues they raise. Our focus is to resolve all issues brought to our attention and to ensure that my ministry’s vision of providing social justice, developing good faith relationships and developing safe and productive workplaces becomes a reality.”
The ministry held similar road shows in the Western Division in February and in the Northern Division in March this year.
Further consultations will be held in Lami, Navua/Pacific Harbour/ Levuka & Kadavu on the following dates:
Wednesday 8th May – Lami Town
Thursday 9th May – Navua Town
Wednesday 22nd May – Levuka Town
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2. GOVERNMENT TEAM TO BE PART OF ROTUMA DAY CELEBRATIONS
The Prime Minister’s Office permanent secretary, Lt. Col Pio Tikoduadua will be chief guest at this year’s Rotuma Day celebration on the remote island.
Rotuma Day is celebrated on May 13 by Rotumans everywhere, especially back home.
It is always a wonderful time for Rotumans to get together and celebrate in style the island cession to the United Kingdom in 1881.
Government recognises the importance of this remote island as a dependant of Fiji. Every year a Government delegation from various ministries take the opportunity to visit the island and update themselves with the various works their government departments are doing on the island.
On Wednesday morning an advance party of government officials will be departing Suva for Rotuma to attend this unique celebration.
This year, for the first time, the chief guest will visit the original site of the deed of cession at Lihava where the Gagaj Maraf will read the deed of session in Rotuman.
On the same day the chief guest will then launch the one million tree planting program at Atapisi.
Lt. Col Tikoduadua and government officials will be accorded the traditional welcoming ceremony and feast called “mamasa”.
The chief guest will also take time to visit the various stalls of the seven districts with their display of cultural items and root crops, especially yams.
Lt. Col Tikoduadua will also host a talanoa session with the people of Rotuma at Oinafa Village hall.
Officers from Fiji Development Bank, and the Fiji National Provident Fund will also be part of the team for Rotuma.
Education officers from the Ministry of Education are part of the advance team doing external school review inspection on all island schools.
Education permanent secretary, Dr Brij Lal will be going to Rotuma to open the new Form Seven for Rotuma High School.
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3. BULK PURCHASE BRINGS IN REVENUE FOR GOVERNMENT
Fiji Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Services under the Ministry of Health is proud to announce a profit of $434,917.56 in its Bulk Purchase Scheme.
This profit, which has been paid out in February this year, was earned due to sale of pharmaceutical items.
Bulk purchase is a major revenue generating arm of Government which is required to transfer any profit made in excess of its revolving fund ceiling ($500,000) to Ministry of Finance consolidated Revenue Account each year.
The Bulk Purchase Scheme (known as BPS) is the commercial arm of the Ministry of Health’s Fiji Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Supply Centre which has a revolving fund ceiling of $500,000. It started operations in 1981, and since then sourced pharmaceuticals both for the Government and non-government sectors. BPS operates a Trading and Manufacturing Account (TMA).
“The main aim of Bulk Purchase Scheme Trading and Manufacturing Account is to engage in the acquisition and the sale of affordable pharmaceutical products in Fiji and the region to develop a strong customer base by providing an efficient and effective operating system,” Health Minister Doctor Neil Sharma said.
According to Dr Sharma, one of the biggest challenges facing Bulk Purchase Scheme Trading and Manufacturing Account is satisfying customer demands by providing the best services as per their needs.
“Customers are the key to our business success as they contribute to our long term success and profitability so therefore it becomes a challenging task to maintain that focus by devising ways whereby we can achieve greater customer satisfaction,” he said.
The potential for Bulk Purchase Scheme to grow into a dominant supplier of medical goods in Fiji and the region is promising but this depends solely on proper planning and projections.
“Proper planning in terms of how best to use resources to enable BPS to meet our objectives. The success of BPS TMA depends on all stakeholders who play an important role in determining what actions to take in addressing certain issues,” Dr Sharma said.
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