By Loretta B Manele
We are not pointing fingers at people, we are talking about good governance, accountability, trust and predictability.
Peter Shanel Agovaka, foreign affairs minister voiced the above when he contributed to the Sine Die Motion on Thur, 19th Dec 2024 in parliament.
He was responding to a comment made by Matthew Wale, Leader of Opposition who spoke earlier on.
Wale said on the outstanding Rennell bauxite royalties, he is disappointed that they resorted to pointing fingers on this issue.
In response to this, Agovaka stated that they are not pointing fingers at people but are talking about good governance, accountability, trust and predictability.
“These are important good governance components to help us with our work”
Moreover, he said they have passed the budget and as ministers, their work is to bring policies and budget to parliament.
“And all 50 members of parliament we debated on the budget and passed it in parliament. Our job is done, budget has been passed. Where does it go from here?”
He added that it goes down to the public service which are the implementers of this budget; both the recurrent and the development budget.
Agovaka mentioned that as ministers, they oversee and make sure their permanent secretaries and ministries do their work.
He said the responsibility of implementing any budget in the country and the budget objectives lies in the hands of public service in all ministries.
Agovaka pointed out that if any ministry does not carry out their work it is due to the fact that public service in that particular ministry is not performing to the expectation of the people of this country.
“So don’t come and point fingers at ministers or members of parliament for not doing their part we have indeed our part.
We have been sitting here all day, listening to the debates and we go for breaks and come back.
We put our foot down and we go to work to the extent that sometimes we don’t have time for our families”
