Letter To The Editor
All kinds of budgets whether main supplementary, revised etc, deal with the unknown future.
Since only God knows the future, no budget can be 100% correct to the last cent.
All budgets are therefore 100% wrong!
Sometimes, we define the budget as a combination of intelligent guesses and estimates giving birth to a new word to one’s vocabulary – GUESSTIMATES.
Likewise, Companies’ profits shown in their Accounts are also estimates.
And taxes on Companies’ profit are also estimates.
Budgets are therefore only guesstimates.
For good planning purposes however, we still need budgeting as the most intelligent approximation of the near truth based on past experiences of actual historical costs of events.
FAST’s hopeful dream therefore for 2023/2024 totals just over one billion tālā as announced over the Media, copies of which have been distributed by Parliament.
This billion tālā budget is divided into three broad categories of Expenditure (1) Statutory Expenses $157 million tālā which encompass the honors and dignity of this Nation. (2) Maintenance of Government Operation $781 million tālā (3) The balance for Development.
Government Revenue from our own sources is only $730 million tālā excluding external budget support and other direct grant funded projects.
Therefore, our Total estimated Expenditure of over a billion Tala for 2023/2024 minus our own estimated total local Revenue of $730 million tālā tells all, a very big, big, big over spending of moneys we think, hope and pray to get in the new financial year!
We are heavily dependent on donor partners to finance our development and maintenance of Government operation.
No development loan is envisaged for 2023/2024.
Our last loan was in 2016 during the Human Rights Protection Party term to expand our Petrol Storage Tanks.
Samoa today is reaping the benefit of that foresight.
Most of our past loans were from ADB, and through the International Development Association of the World Bank with a 36% of Grant Element.
Payment of Samoa’s external debts are gradually reduced accordingly as the resulting projects begin to operate, (eg Afulilo Dam etc; to provide cheap electricity etc, etc).
These projects contribute to growth in national incomes (gdp) and personal incomes (pci or per capita income).
Samoa is now a middle income level Country since 2014.
Donor Partners donate on the strength of a Country’s record of efficient project funds utilization on the basis of Good Governance, the observance of the Rule of Law and the capacity of its people to implement projects speedily and with high quality of workmanship.
When FAST is using resources on needless and wasteful projects eg, Fagalii Airport, allowing Ministers to enrich themselves openly, threatening with deportation overseas investors they owe moneys to, committing numerous breaches of the law and expecting legal immunity, sacking experienced and highly qualified educated Samoans and engaging family members who were dismissed from the Public Service and those who were never recommended by appointing panels nor even applied, plus more ignoble activities we have witnessed, no donor will continue to ignore and allow budget support and other grants to continue.
There are Donor representatives in Samoa, reporting to their Headquarters on the use of their tax payers’ moneys.
Discussions between Forum Leaders and Australia and New Zealand on budget support in the past reflected the general reluctance of Donors’ to give budget support to Governments where the propensity for Governments to misuse budget support for their corrupt political campaigns is high.
This is what is happening today in Samoa.
Continuity of aid under these circumstances is an embarrassment to a Donor as it would be seen by the people of the recipient Government that the donor is an accomplice to the corrupt activities of a ruling Party in power.
It is the reason these letters of ours are distributed to the Media in Australia, New Zealand etc for the benefit of all our diaspora to read.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi – Leader of HRPP