Vanuatu Review of National Land Legislation, Policy and ... - AusAID

Attachment 7 Strengthening of DOLSR institutional capacity to handle regulatory,administrative and registry demands associated with implementinglegislation.The OMO study would include an Action Plan detailing the actions required toachieve the agree objectives, the responsibilities for implementation and a schedulefor implementation.6.2. Records OfficeThe Records Office is the main shop front for land administration activities inVanuatu and it is through the operation of this office that many people undertakingland dealing will gain their impressions of the efficiency of land administrationactivities. The Records Office is also a generator of significant revenue for theGovernment. It is for these reasons, at least, that the Records Office must beappropriately staffed and efficiently managed.However there are a number of issues in relation to the operation of the RecordsOffice that must be addressed with some urgency. These include:Improved procedures for processing of documents including theregistration of mortgages;Appropriate staffing and training to reduce backlogs of documentprocessing;Review of authorities and the removal of the Minister to sign landregistration documents such as mortgages.In relation to document management and storage there is an urgent need fordocument backup systems to be implemented. At present there is no documentbackup which means that if there is a fire or natural disaster that may destroy theland records there is no way in which the data in these records can be recovered.Such an event would have disastrous consequences for land administrationactivities including revenue generation. The private sector is aware of this issue andseveral companies indicated that they maintain their own back up system, mindful ofthe consequences of the destruction of the land records.6.3. DecentralisationArticle 82 of the Constitution recognises the importance of ensuring that people areable to participate in the Government of their local region and enables theenactment of legislation to support decentralisation and Article 83 provides for thedivision of Vanuatu into local government regions. The Government passed in 1994the Decentralisation and Local Government Regions Act which established localgovernment regions which commenced decentralisation of responsibilities.Decentralisation was one of the issues raised during the National Land Summit. Adecentralisation policy recognises the importance of providing government servicesto all provinces of Vanuatu and also assists in reducing the focus on Efate and PortVila for much of the job creation and economic development. However there are anumber of issues that need to be addressed in implementing a decentralised model.