AS talks of the budget is now before the Public Accounts Committee, it is important that we as citizens of this country must take an avid interest to read and listen to what will transpire during this hearing.
Much has been said about budget cuts and more-so the setback this will have on the operations of government ministries including the provincial governments.
It is a worrying thought especially when we see so much that needs to be done in terms of infrastructural development amongst other activities that will boost our economy.
Recently a team from International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited the country and staff teams from IMF that were here issued a press release stating that ‘consideration should be given to maintaining expenditures in priority areas and curbing expenditures in areas which have expanded recently’.
Solomon Islanders do not need to have a degree to know where government’s expenditures have expanded recently.
Tertiary scholarships, CDF and shipping grants are some areas that need curbing.
Take for example, from 2013 to 2015, a total of $70.3M from taxpayers money was allocated for the National Shipping grant programme known as the National Transportation Initiatives Programme.
This is a lot of money and we should as tax payers be wary of how our government will be spending our money.
If any area that needs curbing, the areas where MPs have used programmes of this sort for their own benefits should be the first to be curbed.
