THE Government will spend $6 million on the current review exercise set up to look into a possible switch in diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China.
That’s according to Opposition leader Mathew Wale.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has not disclosed how much the government has spent or is going to spend on the exercise.
But Wale said on Wednesday that he got the $6 million figure from reliable sources within the government.
Already, the Government had sent the bi-partisan task-force it established to carry out the review to Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, and China.
It is expected the task-force will do further consultation on the issue locally in the coming weeks.
But Wale described the spending as reckless and waste of scarce public funds.
“Prime Minister Sogavare’s political gimmickry demonstrated that he is willing to recklessly spend public money on the bi-partisan task force process while more pressing needs such as shortage of medicine in our rural clinics and the Kongulai water source treatment continue to cry out for our scarce resources,” Wale said.
“The prime minister must immediately stop spending our scarce resources for the advancement of his insincere political games,” he added.
Comments are being sought from the Office of the Prime Minister.
By IAN M. KAUKUI
