SODELPA Leader, Viliame Gavoka maintains their policy, will provide free tuition for all the people pursuing their first degree, diploma or certificate in our tertiary institutions.
Gavoka says this policy has been questioned by Minister for Infrastructure, Jone Usamate.
Usamate has asked about the math around this policy and how SODELPA plans to provide free tuition for tertiary education. Responding to this in a statement, Gavoka claims that it will cost some $200 million each year and they plan to reduce spending in some development programs to divert to tertiary education.
He says an area that they have identified is roads where they believe they can do well with $300 million each year. Gavoka has projected that over the next 4 years this translates to $1.2 billion or $3 billion over 10 years, further claiming that with proper implementation this will give Fijians roads with world standards.
He says the budget on roads was $653 million in 2015, $635 million in 2016, $527 million in 2017, $563 million in 2018/2019.
The SODELPA Leader adds that with the difficulties in 2019/2020 the budget came down to $414.9 million, down further to $348.9 million in 2020/2021, further reduced to $338.2 million in 2021/2022.
Gavoka claims his party has discovered that Fiji always spends less than what is budgeted.
He says SODELPA is basing their assumptions on the normal years, which they believe will return from 2023 onwards, and peg the budget on roads consistently at $300 million.
Gavoka says the $200 million for free tertiary is within their means and the $300 million, properly implemented guarantee roads of high quality.
