Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa says Minister and treasury of the Ministry of Finance are now ready to table their 2021-2022 budget before government by Friday.
“This important development will process a full budget and to lay that proposed budget on the table for parliament’s consideration in September.
“We are very pleased that the Minister and Ministry of Finance and the Ministry are now at a point where we can begin that process,” Fiame said during a press conference.
The Opposition Human Rights Protection Party will be closely watching the budget.
Earlier last week, former Finance Minister, Sili Epa Tuioti predicted that there will be budget cuts for some government ministries to meet the Faatuatua i Le Atua Samoa ua Tasi’s promise of $1million tala for each constituency.
He questioned where the funds will come from predicting that assistance for private schools including funds for church school systems will be impacted with the budget cuts as well.
“It will be interesting to see where the funds will come from, hopefully it will not come from Education and Health which have always been priority areas for all HRPP governments,” he said.
During the FAST roadshow last year, they promised that each electoral constituency will be given $1million tālā for any project they want to do.
“Fifty one million is a lot of money to find from the national budget,” Sili said.
According to Prime Minister Fiame, the over $50million allocation for constituencies is part of the manifesto of the new government.
Photo supplied Caption: Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa