RAROTONGA (Pacnews) — The government’s lack of policy direction for the outer islands over the past six years has been partly responsible for the reversal of the devolution process in the Cook Islands, a former government consultant told the Cook Islands News.
George Turia, a former consultant and special projects officer at the island administration ministry, said there was a crucial lack of understanding of the reform process on the part of everybody involved, including the country’s leaders.
“People, whether they are politicians or officials, were not clear on the concepts of reform or the concepts of devolution. The issues hadn’t been thought through very clearly and one of the reasons was that government didn’t have a clear policy on the devolution process,” he said.
“There was no clear policy (and) they then tried to fast track the process by transferring all services to the outer islands, who were not prepared. Instead we assisted with complicating things even further and adding to the confusion. The outer islands were given everything bar the money,” he said.
Turia said there was very little consultation with outer islands residents.
“No one has really sat down with these guys and asked them what their needs are, what they think should happen, what the social impact would be on the community,” he said. According to Turia, devolution should now be abandoned completely.
“We’ve got to get away from this devolution thing—it’s finished, it’s gone. The overarching principle is reform and this is an ongoing process. Devolution is time-bound and we’ve gone past that,” he said.
