Recent media stories of collusion between suppliers and contractors to inflate project costs and or divert supplies for unauthorized purposes is cause for national concern.
The scale of alleged abuse in the Government’s million tālā scheme is reaching alarming levels.
This scheme will cost the Samoan taxpayer and donors a total of $255,000,000 tālā!
Reports of wheelbarrows and farming equipment being resold and unused are spreading all over the social media.
It has been made worse by the lack of transparency in the Government’s reporting of the use of the millions of tālā that have been paid out to date.
It is a well-known audit principle that any well-planned financial control system cannot function when there is a collusion amongst the top executives of any organization.
The Government’s anti-corruption strategy that was recently launched is unable to stop this flood of abuse of public funds.
It looks good in theory but has been ineffective in delivery.
Discovering a fraud is not enough!
What is needed is the courage to take bold remedial action against any offender, regardless of their position and status.
The Government has yet to show us any convincing sign of a return on investment directly related to the $255,000,000 tālā to date.
All we are seeing is Samoa taxpayers and donor money being spent with minimal return except for a few “millionaires-for-a-day” and project accounts that are not properly disclosed.
In fact it is not clear which Government Ministry is accountable for the use of these funds.
The Minister of Women is approving projects, the Minister of Finance is disbursing funds, and the Minister of Agriculture is happily giving out farming equipment through local hardware companies.
There is a famous saying in politics that describes such gimmick projects as roads to nowhere.
Samoa now has its very own $255,000,000 tālā road to nowhere!
These are the same destructive economic and political policies that drove the Samoan economy into the ground prior to 1982.
History is repeating itself.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi
Leader of HRPP