The government now in place is not an interim or caretaker government but a government that was mandated by the President to be in office until September 2014.

Those are the words of Commodore Frank Bainimarama as he spoke to senior executives of the civil service including Permanent and Deputy Secretaries, directors of various government ministries and heads of the disciplined forces today in Nasova.

Bainimarama told the civil servants that he is speaking to them as Prime Minister and Minister responsible for Public Service.

He said it should be noted that the retirement age is 55 years and all new appointments including those who are to be promoted shall now all be put on contracts of engagement.

Bainimarama said the rationale behind the new State Services Decree requires that civil servants, from the most junior to the most senior, to be loyal to the rules of engagement, loyal to the government and loyal to the people of Fiji.

He also stressed that appointments within the service will be merit based and civil servants cannot continue to be seen as paper pushers and typical bureaucrats.

Commodore Bainimarama then went on to say that the senior civil servants need to be agents of change and progress and if they cannot do that, there is no place for them in the new civil service.

He also revealed that a number of measures to curb anomalies and downright abuse in the civil service will be implemented in the coming weeks and months.

One of these measures include the need for all government vehicles driven after hours to carry permits, and the military and police will be responsible for ensuring that this directive is complied with.

He said there are many rules that need to be changed which were put in place decades ago and are no longer suitable in this day and age.