Native Lands Trust Board has found itself under fire from many quarters regarding the lease for Seventh Day Adventist education institute, also known commonly as Fulton College.
A Fiji sun article quotes from the landowners who won a decision from Fiji's Appeals Court that concluded that Native Lands Trust Board had erred in issuing a lease without the succinct approval from the landowners. Apparently the current General Manager of Native Lands Trust Board, Semi Tabakanalagi actually issued the 75 year lease documents, according to the landowners.
The excerpt of the Fiji Sun article:
Clan loses faith in NLTB
Last updated 1/2/2008 8:33:22 AM
A group of landowners who issued an eviction notice to an educational institution says it has lost faith in the Native Land Trust Board.
Yavusa Salatu had issued an eviction notice to Fulton College after the NLTB and Australasian Conference Association a branch of the Seventh Day Adventist Church which manages the college failed to discuss the issue of a 75 -year lease to the college.
Yavusa Salatu spokesman Jo Waqa said the eviction notice was issued only because of the frustration of the landowners and their lack of confidence in the NLTB and its general manger Semi Tabakanalagi.
The landowners claimed that in 2002 Mr Tabakanalagi had issued a 75-year lease to ACAL without their consent. "It was he who in 2002, as deputy manager NLTB, issued a 75-year lease without the consent of the landowners who then obtained an injunction against the NLTB. This injunction is still in place today," Mr Waqa said.
Mr Waqa said the landowners were frustrated because despite the military clean-up campaign, Mr Tabakanalagi was promoted to general manager. The landowners regretted the eviction notice but Mr Waqa said NLTB and ACAL had denied the landowners what was rightfully theirs. Efforts to get comments from Mr Tabakanalagi were futile.
NLTB board chairman Ratu Epeli Ganilau said he was still in Taveuni and was not aware of the allegations. He referred all queries to Mr Tabakanalagi. The SDA church also refused to comment on the issue.
Fiji TV article reveals the state of frustration on the part of landowners, who seemed to be given the run around by the NLTB. The excerpt of Fiji TV article:
Fulton College served eviction notice
31 Dec 2007 00:53:45
On the eve of the New Year, the management of Fulton College has been served with an eviction notice, to vacate and remove all their buildings and structures. The Yavusa Salatu in Tailevu says they had no choice but to issue the notice as school management had failed to engage in further dialogue, over their compensation claims that's worth millions of dollars.
Transpacific Union Mission President, Waisea Vuniwa says they have received the eviction notice and have handed the matter to their legal counsel at Howards. Upon receiving legal advise, they will determine their next course of action.
This is the eviction notice served to the Australasian Conference Association Limited, which operates the Tailevu School, Fulton College. The notice is signed by the heads of three mataqali claiming to be the legal landowners from the Yavusa Salatu, that owns the 100 acres of land where the college seats.
The notice is effective from tomorrow, which gives school management 30 days to vacate the school, and to remove all their buildings or structures. This group that hand delivered the eviction notice this morning. What the landowners are asking for are damages worth millions of dollars, following a High Court case in July this year that, there were not properly consulted when the lease was issued to the College.
The Fulton College principal is away in Australia; the Vice Principal is on leave and could not be reached for comments. The SDA's Transpacific Union Mission that looks after the school could not be reached for comments when this bulletin was prepared, as management was attending a meeting over this eviction notice.
According to the NLTB website, the organization was aware of the lease expiring as early in 2002 and the press release also acknowledges the differences between the landowner and the tenant; which probably explains why the NLTB via Tabakanalagi illegally extended the 75 year lease without the landowner's approval. The 2007 Appeals Court decision literally threw a spanner in the works, of manufacturing consent for landowners and it is probable that similar actions by NLTB have yet to receive media attention.
Radio NZ International article explains briefly on the decision by Justice Filimoni Jitoko. The excerpt:
Fiji teacher training college may be forced to close
Posted at 22:46 on 19 July, 2007 UTC
The future of a regional teacher training college operated in Fiji by the Seventh Day Adventist Church has been thrown into question following a Suva High Court ruling yesterday.
Fulton College in Tailevu about 50 kilometres from Suva has been training teachers for church schools since 1940.
The Fiji Times reports that an action brought by traditional landowners sought a court declaration that part of the land on which Fulton College is situated is native reserve and therefore cannot be eased to anyone unless it is de-reserved.
They took the matter to court when the Native Land Trust Board was in the process of issuing a new lease after the previous lease expired in 2005.
In his judgement, Justice Filimoni Jitoko noted that the Native Land Reserve Commissioner in the 1950s, the late Sir Ian Thompson, had ruled that 40-hectares of the 200 hectares used by the college should be returned to the landowners.
Justice Jitoko said the plaintiffs’ land was declared native reserve in 1983 and the NLTB must act now to rectify the situation by consulting with the landowners and the Seventh Day Adventist Australian Conference Association Limited.
"The landowners claimed that in 2002 Mr Tabakanalagi had issued a 75-year lease to ACAL without their consent. "It was he who in 2002, as deputy manager NLTB, issued a 75-year lease without the consent of the landowners who then obtained an injunction against the NLTB. This injunction is still in place today," Mr Waqa said. "
Furthermore, the current NLTB General Manager has a cloud of disrepute hanging over his head as earlier S.i.F.M posts have outlined.
NLTB man denies collusion claims
By MAIKA NAGALU
A senior Native Land Trust Board officer had defended himself against allegations that he was used by Tui Tavua Ratu Ovini Bokini to alter some land leases to landowners. Board deputy general manager operations Semi Tabakanalagi denied the allegations by some members of the chiefly household landowning unit in Tavua that he had been colluding with the Great Council of Chiefs chairman on land leases.
[Tabakanalagi] said he was not working with Ratu Ovini for criminal intent but for working relationships only since he is the chief of the vanua of Bila and is the traditional head of his landowning unit.
"Collusion for criminal intent is an absolute no and is categorically denied," said Mr Tabakanalagi. He said that he only worked with Ratu Ovini on official matters relating to his work."The Tui Tavua is the supreme chief of the vanua of Tavua and is the traditional head of his mataqali Tilivasewa. His views and decisions on land they own is to be respected and is to be considered," said Mr Tabakanalagi.
NLTB is empowered to deal with native land, he said, for the benefit of native owners and basically "this is our benchmark in the decision-making that we make in our business". Members of the chiefly household landowning unit had filed their complaint to the Anti-Corruption Unit at the beginning of this week citing two cases where Mr Tabakanalagi allegedly altered leases to two of the landowners.
"I am all confident we have made the right decisions in the cases involved," he said. "Two of the cases", Mr Tabakanalagi said, " are still in the tribunal court".
Ratu Ovini did not want to comment and referred all queries to his traditional spokesman.Tavualevu Village spokesman Apisalome Uuisova said they had already called a vanua meeting where the group that had filed complaints to the military is also expected to attend for a resolution.
It is now emerging that every land deal Tabakanalagi was involved in, seems to reverberate with impropriety, including his board seat with Yaqara Studio City project which was addressed in the SiFM post titled "The Trouble With Native Land Administrators".
Other contested cases heard in Fiji court, is the Mahogany plantation landowners who took NLTB to task and subsequently won their case, as described by Radio NZ International article.
Fiji Native Land Trust Board weighs up options following court ruling on leases
Posted at 06:54 on 07 March, 2005 UTC
Fiji’s Native Land Trust Board is considering its options in the wake of a Court of Appeal ruling that all 99-year leases on native land outside urban areas are illegal.
The legal challenge was brought by a landowning unit whose land was leased by the NLTB to the government for 30 years to plant mahogany before the board cancelled the old lease in 1974 and issued a new one for 99 years.
But, the NLTB’s deputy general manager, Semi Tabakanalagi, says the ruling is just one case and doesn’t mean there will be a flood of similar litigation. He says the ruling only applies to those such leases that were issued on undeveloped areas before 1984 regulations which allow the board to issue 99 year-leases.
“Basically, as I said, we are looking at our records on other leases that may be affected because of this ruling. We’ll have to look at our leases portfolio and look at the different terms and different users and then assess which ones fall into this category as was decided upon in that case.”
Semi Tabakanalagi says appealing the Supreme Court decision is an option for the board.
Sadly, Tabakanalagi downplays the precedence of the Mahogany case, as with the Fulton case and this underscores the dubious motives of the person.
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