THE Prime Minister must deliver his Government’s promise to the people of Solomon Islands especially the promise made to Malaita province.
That’s the call issued by the Parliamentary Opposition Group yesterday in a statement.
The Opposition Group said, as a responsible watchdog they have no intention or whatsoever to discredit the efforts taken by the DCCG.
This was in response to the OPMC statement recently.
“The underlying factor is to ensure the Prime Minister and his DCCG deliver what they have promised to the people of Solomon Islands and in particular Malaita province.
“And the Government must accept that when they raise too much expectation from the people, they expect to be measured accordingly to their promises,” it said.
As such, the failure to do so would only be seen as a ‘mere propaganda,’ the statement said, adding; these are realities that the Government must face because Malaita projects have never been prioritised in the 2015 national budget.
“The prioritization of Malaita projects was only resurfaced as a result of continuous pressure from the Opposition Group, Malaita Provincial Government and the public.
“Otherwise, the projects earmarked for Malaita will remain ghost projects only for political convenience.”
The statement further highlighted, lest the Prime Minister forgets; the Opposition want to remind the Prime Minister of his words on the floor of parliament – that his DCCG will deliver the 2015 Peoples’ Budget to the people of Solomon Islands with supporting statements from his Ministers that some of the projects will kick off in mid-year. However, this is yet to be seen,” it said.
The Parliamentary Opposition statement added that there was nothing sinister about the call made by the Opposition.
“To say that Opposition is attempting to garner public support for a political agenda is far from reality because it was the Prime Minister who made these promises at the first place. And as the official watch-dog of the government the Parliamentary Opposition is simply performing its roles and functions as mandated under the constitution,” the statement said.
The Opposition Group also reiterated that the Government had already been warned on the floor of Parliament on the ambiguous people’s budget and the ineffectiveness to deliver the list of political projects within a very short timeframe.
The Opposition statement added whilst the Prime Minister would like to be defensive; it would be wise for the Prime Minister to simply learn not to raise too much expectation when they know very well they could not deliver.
“Our call is genuine and based on setbacks the Government is facing to fund these projects, the capacity and timeframe set out in the 2015 budget, public concerns and complaints by resource owners on the commitment and progress of these projects,” it said.
On the issue of being more consultative; the Opposition Group welcomes that, however, this has not been reflected in the Government’s decision making pertaining to controversial issues passed by Cabinet which only resulted in more unbudgeted spending on questionable payouts in the past few months.
On the issue of collective decision; the Opposition Group acknowledged that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet including the backbenchers are collaborating through making collective decision.
On that note, the Opposition wished to advise the Government that the ultimate outcome of whatever collective decisions must be in the best interest of the people and the country; something DCCG had failed to do in the past seven months.
