FORMER finance minister and Government MP Professor Biman Prasad has challenged Unity Fiji party leader Savenaca Narube to publicly identify the alleged $1billion in wasteful Government expenditure he claims could be redirected to essential services.
Prof Prasad was responding to Mr Narube’s comments made during an interview on The Fiji Times online portal The Lens@177 that the Coalition Government could save up to $1billion annually by cutting wasteful spending.
“I would be interested in knowing from him if he is honest, if he has real guts as an economist, he should stand up and say this is the billion dollars that is the waste in this Government, this is what needs to go,” Prof Prasad said.
He questioned where Mr Narube believed such savings could be found and whether they would come at the expense of public services and assistance programs.
“Will he cut the civil service? And if he is suggesting that, how many? Where is he talking about the waste?
“Does he mean that we should bring back the TSLS loan scheme and start putting debt burden on the people again?
“Is he saying that we should not top up the 50 per cent social welfare? Is he saying we cut down on school grants? Is he saying that we take away the $200 that we have provided students?”
While acknowledging there were areas where waste could be reduced, Prof Prasad said Mr Narube’s figure lacked substance.
“I challenge him to come out publicly and say where that billion-dollar waste has been created by the Coalition Government in the last three years.
“If he can’t do that, then he should stop talking about some arbitrary figure of a billion dollars in waste.”
