AG says assessment of the 2019/20 Household Income and Expenditure Survey done by the Opposition is purely on ethnicity while Radrodro tells Govt to consult the statisticians if they want to understand statistics

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the entire assessment of the 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey done by the Opposition is purely on ethnicity while SODELPA MP, Salote Radrodro has told the Government that if they want to understand statistics, they should consult the statistician and data experts as the Government is not an expert on everything.

While responding to Radrodro’s End of the Week statement on Standard and Efficient Reporting Requirements in parliament, Sayed-Khaiyum says as usual, Radrodro like her colleagues, cannot help herself but bring in ethnicity.

He says Radrodro is, as usual, off the tangent, very loquacious but not engaging her cerebral.

The Minister says she is referring to the Financial Management Act that the Opposition vehemently opposed in which they made the Ministry of Economy far more responsible and far more requirements were placed on them to divulge information.

He further says nothing in the law entitles the Auditor General to question Government’s policy objective and the Audit Report on the Sustainable Development Goals was done even before any of the work to fulfill it was done.

Meanwhile, Radrodro has told the Government that if you get sick, you will go to the doctor and if you have a toothache, you go to the dentist so if one of you want to understand statistics, consult the statistician and data experts as you are not an expert on everything.

Radrodro says according to the Monitoring Evaluation Mechanism in the National Development Plan, the Fiji Bureau of Statistics is the lead agency responsible for the coordination, compilation and release of official statistics.

The MP further says our laws recognize the importance of accurate and timely reporting under the Financial Management Act 2004 and Financial Regulation 2010 mandates and stipulates the standard reporting requirement for the whole of government machinery.

Radrodro says as required by law, the Auditor General carries out their work to see how the Government is doing in achieving Sustainable Development Goals and they had tabled a performance audit report in Parliament that highlighted problematic areas such as the alignment of the Sustainable Development Goals to Ministries and Departments strategic annual corporate plans for implementation.

She further says the Auditor General’s Office was only doing its work.