THE 50 Members of Parliament (MPs) together received more than half a billion in a year, ousted Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has revealed.
He said this huge amount of money if used wisely should have benefited the entire nation.
Sogavare revealed this on Monday before he was voted out during a Motion of No Confidence moved against him in Parliament.
He said $350million received by 50 MPs each year under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and plus the shipping grant and other funding will push the amount to more than half a billion.
He said funds channelled through the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) were shipping grants and machineries.
He said adding all the funds received by MPs for each year it accumulates to more than half a billion dollars which should benefit the entire nation if used wisely.
He said MPs instead set a bad precedence by purchasing personal assets on money funded under certain projects, for instance shipping grants was used to buy land and houses, vehicles and private machines for logging.
Former PM said three MPs got caught for purchasing a property for rent in White River, which they unable to pursue their business plan, since criminals surrounding those areas could not allow their business ideas to eventuate.
PM said they got caught up for using the shipping grant to purchase houses instead of ship.
Furthermore, Sogavarerevealed that half a billion dollar goes to the rural areas through MPs, but we do not know whether development on the ground reflect those funds or not.
However, in a report carried out by Transparency Solomon Islands (TSI) to evaluate on the impact of CDF fund in the constituency for the previous years, shows very poor results on CDF, compares to tangible development on the ground.
By AATAI JOHN
