Fiji’s Ministry of Lands today launched an online portal that will allow more than 18,000 lessees to access their lease details, including lease terms, valuation, invoices and monitor their payments in a few clicks from their homes and/or place of work.
Launched by Minister for Lands Jone Usamate in Suva today, the ‘MyLeaseInfor’ platform can be accessed via the ministry website www.lands.gov.fj.
To utilise the platform, lessees are required to register themselves on the platform via the provision of their tin letter, valid photo ID, lease copy and relevant documents including deed of trust if they are trustees, or business license if they are corporate leasees, or copy of probate if they are the administrator or executor of the lease. Once registered, leasees will be provided with a username and password unique to them to be able to access their lease accounts in a matter of clicks.
Via the platform, lessees can view their latest eight financial transactions online, their latest lease statement invoice, track the progress of their consent applications, thus saving them time and money.
Developed in-house by the ministry’s programmers who understand the workings of the department, lessees should be familiar with the range of services accessible via the platform and what they mean in terms of the services they need.
Usamate described it as a milestone achievement and expressed his gratitude to the staff and divisions that were involved in the development of the platform.
“It is anticipated that these initiatives essentially mean that we improve ease of doing business in the ministry which in turn leads to more economic activity and economic recovery,” Usamate said.
Permanent Secretary for Lands Dr Raijeli Taga said the initiative was birthed last year whilst reviewing their Standard Operation Procedure (SOPs). It would have been activated earlier on had it not been for the glitch in the govnet system early this year. It was not until last month that developers resumed work on the platform leading up to today’s launch.
The service, she says will also allow ministry staff “to focus and improve its core function on State Land administration to deliver the timely and quality service that its customers deserve.”
“To develop the platform we just made use of what we had. The developers’ did it as part of their work, so there was no special funding,” Dr Taga said.
The developers also have backup systems on hand to guard against possible glitches going forward.
In terms of accessibility of the platform by lessees, Dr Taga said they had carried out a survey, findings of which showed that lessees have phones to facilitate their access.
