Government took $39.8 million out of 12 ministries and entities to fund its “unemployment benefit” scheme in the 2020-2021 National Budget.
This was revealed in the fourth quarter appropriation statement presented in Parliament recently, According to the statement, $15m was taken from the Water Authority of Fiji “Capital Grant” and $14.3m that was set aside for “Tertiary Education Loan Scheme — Accommodation”.
The Fiji Roads Authority was also asked to release $9m it had earmarked for “Capital Grant” and the $6.1m set aside for the construction of the new Prime Minister’s office building was also used for “unemployment benefit”.
An additional $1.5m that was under Head 50 “Miscellaneous Services for the Construction of Prime Minister’s Office” was also used for “unemployment benefit”. The statement also revealed that $1.9m was taken from the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of Local Government had to release $800,000 that it had allocated for “Municipalities Master Plan Singapore Cooperation Enterprise”.
The Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport vired $109,000 for “unemployment benefit” — $9000 was from the ministry’s “vat allocation” and $100,000 was redeployed from the ministry’s “National Export Strategy” scheme.
The Trade Commission of North America also had to send $100,000 for “unemployment benefit”, $87,780 allocated for “Construction of Aged Care Home”, $1.6m set aside for “Construction of Fiji Barefoot College” and $154,399 were redeployed from the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation and used for “unemployment benefit”
