The Works Ministry has decided to defer sending their team of recruitment officers to scout for engineers until a later date.

Permanent Secretary Anand Kumar said the team was supposed to recruit 45 engineers to fill the vacuum of qualified engineers to work for both the Department of Water and Roads.

He said they understand the need to have qualified engineers is necessary in order to be able to improve on their services.

Kumar said priority wise they decided to focus on completing the rehabilitation work on the damages sustained on infrastructure first before sending their team to countries such as India and the Philippines.

Principal Engineer Water Taito Delana had earlier stated that for the whole of the Fiji group, the Water Department only has 6 qualified engineers tasked with looking after their various plants.

The Public Service Commission had approved the recruitment of 45 qualified engineers from overseas to be employed at the Department of Water and National Roads.