By Staff Writer
What was supposed to be a headache saving exercise by the Prime Minister by learning from the New Zealand Labour Party budget model has turned into a throbbing pain of embarrassment rather than relief.
Former Prime Minister and now leader of the HRPP opposition party, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, is pounding on PM Fiame Naomi Mataafa’s head by loudly cringing at one of her first decisive moves since taking up office.
“A major disgrace for Samoa that will not stand well also for the PM from the New Zealand Government perspective,” Tuilaepa re-emphasised in a press conference on Thursday an earlier reaction.
What makes it more embarrasing for the HRPP leader, is how it puts to shame the highly qualified and respected status of the members of the financial profession in Samoa and the international community.
Tuilaepa also felt it reflected poorly on the new Minister of Finance whose level of competence is already under critical public scrutiny.
PM Fiame tried to shoulder the brunt of the opposition leader’s shaming criticisms by admitting that it was her decision in the first place to reach out for budget assistance from New Zealand.
In her Wednesday weekly press conference the PM said she wanted to save on the headache of starting from scratch by tapping into the budget experience of the New Zealand current ruling party.
“I was interested in their budget model to see how we can benefit from their experience after taking over from the National Party after three consecutive terms, which is similar to what we have in Samoa with FAST taking over from the HRPP,” PM Fiame tried to counter.
“Why bother going through the headache of starting anew when we can learn and adopt from the experience of those who have gone through the same process already.
“We need a budget that will reflect our own party policies expressed in our election manifesto the same as the New Zealand Labour Party Government.”
The PM talked about sitting together with her Minister of Finance and Associate Minister in an Online Zoom session with the New Zealand Minister of Finance to go over the Labour Party budget and what will work for Samoa.
But the PM’s admission brought more groans of humiliation from her opposition adversary at how the budgets for the two countries differ vastly with their respective economies.
Tuilaepa also worry at how the budget struggles by the new Government will have on the confidence of Samoa’s donor partners.
He said donor assistance to national developments has never been a concern in the past with Samoa’s budget.
“Our donor partners are always willing to offer assistance because they have confidence in a good budget and before we left we had one already prepared with everything in order.”
The former PM with his career expert background in financing feels for his former Cabinet Minister who has taken over the leadership role from him.
He finds it difficult to believe that after sitting in Cabinet for more than 20 years and up to 50 national budget sessions, she is struggling to put one together.
“Fiame was there when we went through our budget reforms so I would be very disappointed at the thought she did not know what was going on with the budget all these years.”
The same goes for other veteran members of her Cabinet including the Minister of Agriculture La’auli Polataivao Schmidt.
Together with Works Minister Olo Fiti they share the experience of many years in Parliament taking part in budget debate sessions.
“It is a simple exercise of adding and subtracting when you take out one development and add in another while working on the estimates.”
The new budget will be one of the issues that will be closely followed by the opposition leader once it is tabled in Parliament.
A date yet to be officially confirmed for the calling of Parliament is another top priority issue the opposition party is waiting for patiently.