DEAR EDITOR,

As concerned citizen and a victim of this continuing exercise, I wish to remind the responsible authority to monitor drivers who drink and drive, endangering our lives in our towns’ streets.

Drink and drive is an ongoing issue and is very common amongst both the young and old male drivers and most recently females. This mafia like behaviour is dangerous and will cause death not to drivers alone but to the passengers, pedestrians and other motorists.

This exercise was decline when police introduced the use of breathalyser to check on drivers who are under liquor. However, there are still few who have the ‘’No care attitude’’ roaming the street chill-out drinking and driving, especially on weekends. No wonder every accident took place usually fall on weekends.

Drink and drive takes many lives away. It is a dangerous and unlawful practiced indeed for drivers. Drivers must bear in mind that they are the ones stimulating the transportation service in town day and night and as a sole citizen. I strongly encourage their service provided for us is comfortable and safe.

Having the police around monitoring drunken drivers especially on weekend’s night will help reduce the risk on the lives of frequent road users.

I urged the responsible authority to keep on monitoring our streets to ensure there are no drivers who drink and drive and I strongly encourage all good motorist to be a role model to their service and stand firm to campaign for brighter future and a free- accident town.

Jeremiah Teiraru

USP, SI campus.

ALL over the Pacific there are many schemes encouraging people to take out micro loans or to leave the ranks of the ‘unbanked’! Banks have special offers aimed at SMEs as long as we can produce the collateral to support the loan. There are government supported schemes and there are various programmes run by donors usually focused on specific sectors like tourism or issue based like climate change. Some people will borrow from friends or family.

Even with all these schemes it is still hard for many small businesses to access them, especially for those a long way from the urban centres.

Chasing the money is not a sound or sustainable business strategy and I don’t recommend it, no matter how attractive the offer may sound. Everything comes with strings attached – make sure you understand what they are and that you are prepared to accept them.

Many entrepreneurs have started very successful businesses with no external finance and have grown their businesses slowly and debt free. The need to borrow money needs to come from some robust and accurate planning where all other avenues have been exhausted and the consequences of borrowing or seeking investment are well understood. Of course, in some cases a well-planned injection of cash will do wonders for the business and help it grow.

Unfortunately, I have seem too many SMEs take out what appears to be very small loans without knowing the interest rates or how they will repay or what they really want the money for. I have even seen businesses borrow to repay earlier loans! If you have limited financial knowledge then seek help from someone who is independent – a mentor or coach or advisor. Ask your local Chamber of Commerce or business association. Research everything that is available before deciding on one particular financial product.

If your business is interesting it may attract the attention of investors – don’t be flattered into saying yes!! No-one will invest in your business without wanting something back – a return on their investment. Make sure you know exactly what this is before making a decision. How much control will you need to give up in order to get an injection of capital and is it worth it?

Remember, if an offer looks too good to be true then it probably is!!

Finally, desperation is not a good reason to go into debt! Explore every other avenue first. Shop around to see what the best deals are and then seek help to make sure you can afford the deal and that it is the right one for you at this time.   Spend time developing your own financial literacy. The more you know and understand the more likely you are to make the right decision and the more you will feel empowered.

Focus on creating a solid business strategy first and then you can explore the help you might need to turn the strategy into action and achievable goals.

Chris Elphick Breadfruit Consulting, formerly Learnfast Pacific, supporting the development of a range of businesses and organisations in Melanesia and other parts of the Pacific.

DEAR EDITOR,

It is very unfortunate that in S.I. Public Service, qualified Accountants are paid below other professions especially in our government public service. In Fiji, accountants are the highest paid profession in both public and private sectors.

The key and fundamental reason is that accountants are professionals who are able and has the technical capabilities to create and generate new income/investments for organisations or companies to flourish.

They are directly responsible to the key vital resources (finance/money) of running the operation any business. Accountants must be well paid so that they are induced and motivated to manage business finances well, create income/investment opportunities, coordinate and create good financial budgets, maintain good cash management and implement good governance of financial management.

It is quite clear that because of the lack of government accountants’ recognition, the government budget was not well coordinated, prepared and managed.   Reason being that most of the qualified and experienced government accountants have left public service to join private sector for better remuneration and recognition.

Manuel Wuri

Honiara