Why CWM laundry is being taken from Suva to a private contractor in Nadi for years, FRA spends millions of tax dollars with no strategic plan and priority list - Prof. Prasad

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says there is no escaping when talking about the government debt as out of a budget of $4.3 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year, the government has to spend more than $1 billion on debt servicing.

While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan, Professor Prasad says more than $500 million will be made in principal payment and more than $500 million of interest payment, so $1 out of every $4 in the budget or 25 percent of the budget will go into paying debts.

Professor Prasad says a lot also needs to be done as far as maintenance of critical infrastructure is concerned.

He also says putting out budget allocations is one thing but making sure that it is delivered and the taxpayers get value for money.

Professor Prasad says they have found out in the last 6 months that a lot of things does not require lots of money to fix.

He says people should look at the CWM Hospital laundry where fire affected the services many years ago, and all this time the government was sending laundry from Suva all the way to a private contractor in Nadi.

Professor Prasad says he does not want to go to the past personally but if they do not tell the people what the coalition government has landed with and inherited, and what they will do to resolve this, people will not have that understanding.

Professor Prasad also says it is shocking to find out that despite getting more than $3.1 billion over the last few budgets, the Fiji Roads Authority had no strategic plan when asked by the Fiscal Review Committee.

fijivillage News has received information that a senior FRA representative that made the presentation to the committee showed up with a piece of paper with things written on it, and no proper concrete strategic plans on road maintenance, upgrade and construction.

Professor Prasad also says the Ministry of Finance officials were shocked to see the state of infrastructure when he took them on the ground in Vanua Levu and other areas.

The Deputy Prime Minister says FRA spent all it’s money in the first 6 months of the 2022/2023 budget.

He says when the coalition government came in, the FRA said they needed more money to fix the roads as they had spent the money allocated to them in the first half of the financial year.

Professor Prasad says the government had to look for funds to get some roads fixed.

He says it is quite sad and criminal for a government to allow that type of no planning and execution when dealing with taxpayers money.

Meanwhile the Fiscal Review Committee says it was surprised to hear from the Fiji Roads Authority, which is budgeted to receive upwards of $400 million a year for capital and maintenance work on major roads, that FRA had no strategic plan; projects were selected by senior management and spending allocated on the basis of six-monthly grants allocated to it by the Ministry of Finance. The FRA agreed that this made long-term planning difficult.