WHILE the government is seen proactively facilitating and heading events into the 16 Days Activism Campaign on eradicating violence against women and children in the country, it has been criticised for not showing financial commitments to help this fight.
This criticism came when it was revealed of the Ministry of Women, Youths, Children and Family Affairs (MWYCFA), whose projection for grant allocation to some of the institutes looking after victims of various forms of violence, was heavy slashed.
Appearing last week before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry when questioned on this grant packages, revealed that their original bid was cut, and will now rely again on its donor support and relevant stakeholders to help support these institutes.
PAC was told that the Ministry had submitted a bid of $2million for its 2019 Appropriation Allocation, but was only approved a total of $500,000, which is just a quarter of the initial amount that was asked.
This has got the Chairman of the PAC and MP for East Honiara, Douglas Ete to come out hard at the government, stressing that it is being negligence on issues that have direct impacts on the lives of its people, and not showing realistic means into its said commitments to fight the issue head on.
Ete then stressed that the government needs to put money where its mouth is, having promised so much to help in curbing this violence issue in general.
This is something that it continued to be expressed almost every year when this event or related occasions take place.
General criticisms were also directed at the government for continuously paying little attention to this issue, particularly, the ministry and agencies responsible in terms of financial support.
The government is then urged to relook into its allocation and increase its support for these programs, as they are implementing some of its vital policy intents regarding this issue.
