Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka has asked Opposition MP, Premila Kumar “didn’t they have a Minister for ‘everything’ - not in name but in deeds and overseeing.
This follows Kumar’s statement that the Prime Minister’s decision to take on additional portfolios, adding Immigration and Police to an already long list raises serious concerns about his confidence in the competence and capabilities of his team.
Kumar says if the government is confident in its collective talent, then why concentrate so much power in one office.
She asks why is this necessary when every MP except one in the Coalition Government already has a ministerial or assistant ministerial role.
Kumar says surely, with such a large pool of ministers, responsibility could be better distributed.
She says by juggling critical portfolios like Foreign Affairs, Climate Change, Environment, Civil Service, Information, Public Enterprises, and now Immigration and Police, the Prime Minister risks spreading himself too thin.
The Opposition MP says it is unrealistic to expect any individual, no matter how capable, to effectively manage such a broad and demanding portfolio.
She says this move to split the Ministry of Defence into separate portfolios for Defence and Immigration and Police follows a similar pattern seen with the Attorney General’s role being divided from the Ministry of Justice to keep Siromi Turaga when we all know he could not deliver. Kumar adds Fiji faces pressing issues — soaring cost of living, struggling healthcare systems, drug issues, law and order situation, and a brain drain in critical sectors like education and health.
She says the Prime Minister’s fixation on consolidating power in multiple ministries detracts from addressing these challenges head-on.
Kumar says we all know that there are some ministers and assistant ministers in this government who are not performing, and they should be relieved of their duties immediately.
She asks why continue to waste taxpayers' money on underperforming officials, especially when some appear more focused on international travel than on addressing the urgent national issues that need their attention at home.
In his response, Rabuka also says he is only taking Police and Immigration as they are (Drugs and Passports) hot potato topics today while Defence Minister, Pio Tikoduadua ‘stands aside’.
Kumar says Rabuka has three deputies who could have easily handled the portfolios until the Immigration Department investigation was completed.
She says the Prime Minister has raised the issue that FijiFirst had a minister with multiple portfolios, which he terms as Minister for Everything, but Kumar says Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was competent and capable and never shied away from media by saying" I am not aware" or "I don't know" or "I have not been briefed".
She adds the FijiFirst Government had only 11 cabinet ministers, but the Coalition Government has 20 cabinet ministers with three Deputy Prime Ministers.
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