Where is the money – DPM: We are now paying the price for poor planning

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Deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad. Picture: ELIKI NUKUTABU/FILE

Where is the money? This was the question posed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Professor Biman Prasad as he shared how his ministry was working frantically to address Fiji’s debt commitments, caused by the FijiFirst government’s “people pleasing” economic choices.

Prof Prasad said those choices had put the country in a very “unfavourable” position, and said “we were now paying the price for poor planning, unsound investment, and lack of maintenance”.

As he touched on rampant wastage, pilferage and mismanagement of funds, Prof Prasad also questioned the “ridiculous” amounts of money spent on Fijian Broadcasting Corporation and Walesi over the past decade, whereby he revealed that the FBC got more than $90 million while Walesi received over $60m.

He said the FijiFirst government also paid international movie producers $200 million and owed them another $200m.

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