Corrupt officials making Tonga dysfunctional

TONGA – Some senior government officials in Tonga have abused foreign-funded projects, Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva has claimed.

The prime minister also said some officials did not work to the best of their ability because they did not like him politically.

There was a political, social and business network outside government which “strongly influenced” the government’s decision making, Pohiva said.

This kind of abuse had to be stopped immediately.

“We have to clean this up as soon as possible so that the government’s policies could be put into effects.

“It has caused the government to be dysfunctional. Unfortunately we find it very difficult to move forward unless we have to do something about these problems,” he said.

There was no use in the government having good policies while those who were required to implement those policies in the ministries were corrupt, he said.

He said it was clear that in the past two years the only successful projects his government had launched were handled by senior officials who were not corrupt and did not have a political vendetta against him.

Pohiva said it had been reported to him that some senior officials had applied for funding of some projects for their ministries.

Most of those projects were either unsuccessful or contributed less advantages to the community because of the way how they were implemented.

“What I now know is that when those projects were launched the people who benefitted most were the consultants and those who monitored the project because they were paid from it,” the prime minister said.

Pohiva said he had proved in the past two years that corrupt senior officials inside the government had connections with an outside network.

He said this network included some members of business circles and the nobility.

“If we cannot remove or do something to these senior officials inside the government we cannot move forward.”

- Kaniva News