Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad will be taking legal action against those who have criticised the Government in its spending and allocations for the Girmit Day celebrations.
Speaking to The Fiji Times online news portal, The Lens@177, Prof Prasad said they had collected materials and would soon take legal action against critics.
He made the comment while responding to Opposition member Rinesh Sharma’s post on social media that the Girmit celebration allocation was $500,000.
“We have collected a lot of materials, and we will do that,” Prof Prasad said.
“He’s (Rinesh Sharma) talking about the $500,000 budget. Let me explain this. The budget was $500,000 — the total actual expenditure that was spent on Girmit commemoration 2023 was $380,308.76.
“Out of that, $125,000 came from sponsorship, government funds utilised was $255,308.76.
“So I want to say to people like Alvick Maharaj, Rinesh Sharma, and Mahendra Chaudhry who are out there criticising this Girmit celebration, they are worried and I know why they are doing it.
“Because this is what they did for the past 15 years, they played on the fears of the Indo-Fijian community.
“I was in Parliament for eight years, the moment I talked about working together with our iTaukei leaders, they would accuse me of being against our Indo-Fijian community.
“Now they realise it is such a fantastic program and they can’t digest the fact that a large majority of the Indo-Fijian and iTaukei community in this country appreciate the fact that this Government has not only declared it a public holiday but is actually putting money into the activities.”
Prof Prasad said this year they had allocated $230,000 for the Girmit celebration.
“$30,000 has already gone to some quick renovation in anticipation of the program, and the other $200,000 — and of course they would have gotten a lot of support and sponsors as well.
“So you can see how transparent and accountable we were in terms of the expenditure last year and expenditure this year.
“And for them to drag my wife into it and say that you know, I gave money to her and some you know, dealers and brokers.
“I mean, this is what we call the height of political immorality, thuggery and desperation on the part of those who say these things.”
