FINANCE Minister Professor Biman Prasad says while the Government has done much in the past two years, he admits much more remains to be done.
Prof Prasad made the comment at a National Budget public consultation in Nadi in response to a submission from hotelier Jackson Mar on the ageing infrastructure of public hospitals.
“I want our people to understand that a lot of the things we are fixing now is taking time,” Prof Prasad said. “The system does not allow us to do it quickly.
“And, so, there is a lot of work for us to do in the next two years.
“My own assessment is that we have done a lot of work in two years.
“In fact, if you put everything together, what was there and what we have changed in the last two years is quite expensive, but it is not enough, a lot more needs to be done.
“We are not sitting there and not doing anything.”
Prof Prasad said they were working with development partners on the renovation of the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.
“The other thing is we’re actually getting independent people to do a study, investigate and tell us. Because nothing of that sort used to be done. No bad news was allowed to come out, and we could not even talk about it. We are different.
“We are getting independent people, independent institutions like the World Bank, our development partners Australia and New Zealand, to look at it independently and tell us what’s wrong.
“And how we can fix it, and that is what we are doing.”
