Dear Editor,

The point raised by the Leader of the Opposition regarding the $204 million not yet allocated for the District Development Projects is interesting.

As pointed out in Tuilaepas letter, $204 million is a lot of money given out in just one year remaining of the parliamentary term which can rightly be construed to be campaign handout.

I am sure FAST will point out that they campaigned on $1 million per district per year of the five year parliamentary term or $5 million per district per parliamentary term which if not fully disbursed could be construed as a campaign promise unfulfilled.

I’ll leave it to the readers to decide on the merits of both arguments. But the real reason I wrote this was – given that there is only one more year to go before the general elections, I think this is the time for all parties to give us a hint of their policies for the next five years if elected.

I am interested to know if HRPP will continue with the $1 million per year per district project if elected (ie give funding direct to the grassroots people for them to decide on which programs to spend money on) or will discontinue and revert to their style of providing funding for grassroots projects through the private sector.

Pili Aliisolia

Saleia