Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says he is now expecting a detailed report from the Ministry of Finance on the real cost of hosting the National Economic Summit.
In an interview, Rabuka said that while the National Economic Summit was a Government hosted event, the cost is supposed to be picked up by the Government.
Rabuka said that if you looked at this holistically, funds budgeted for Kalavata’s or the hiring of the venue and other things, actually went back in to the pockets of the Fijian people.
“The money that went to the sewing of the kalavata’s, this went to the tailors, this paid for employees that are working in garment factories to sew these materials.”
The Prime Minister indicated that many times, we are caught up on why the money wasn’t redirected to those that needed it the most.
Rabuka said the People’s Coalition Government will be upfront about costs of events it will host for the sake of transparency and accountability.
“I assure you that we will be upfront on how we use the people’s money.”
However, right now the Ministry of Finance has yet to hand over the exact costing of what was used, what was sponsored or in kind donations towards this.
Rabuka added that it would be premature of him to discuss this without seeing the breakdown.
