Chaudhry Suggests USP Budget Cut

The Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has suggested a 15 percent cut in the University of the South Pacific's budget over the next three years.

Speaking at the regional Finance Ministers meeting at USP today, Chaudhry highlighted that USP has been riddled with wastage and mismanagement, especially so with a bloated salary and wage bill for certain senior management staff.

Chaudhry argued in its triennium budget, USP will cost regional governments a massive $53 million with the figure going up by six percent every year, a substantial amount for small island nations with restrictive budgets.

He said the regional institution was living beyond its means and that USP must learn to work within a practical budgetary framework as he questioned his regional counterparts on why governments of the member countries should pay for such extravagance.

The Interim Finance Minister believes that USP can, without increasing tuition fees and student accommodation charges, indentify cost cutting measures to offset the reduction in expenditure.

He also said that the University has written off in excess of $3 million in its commercial ventures, which is unacceptable.