Cut Cabinet numbers, not civil servants' pay: Kumar

Opposition MP Premila Kumar has urged Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka to reduce the size of his Cabinet and curb government spending instead of considering pay cuts for civil servants.

Ms Kumar said it was troubling that the Government would even talk about salary reductions despite borrowing billions of dollars and collecting record revenues during a period of economic growth.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fiji endured the worst economic crisis in its history. The economy contracted by 17%, tourism collapsed, one-third of the workforce lost their jobs, schools were closed for 9 months, and government revenues plummeted,” she said.

“Yet civil servants including teachers who stayed home continued to receive their salaries and support was provided to unemployed workers to help families survive.”

Ms Kumar questioned why the Government was contemplating pay cuts after borrowing heavily during more favourable economic conditions.

“Today, after borrowing 2 billion dollars during a period of economic growth and strong revenue collections of 4 billion dollars in Fiji's history, Prime Minister Rabuka is already floating the idea of pay cuts for civil servants.”

“This raises a serious question: where has all the money gone? Not in new roads, not in new hospital or any new infrastructure?”

She said ordinary workers should not be made to bear the consequences of government spending decisions.

“Instead of asking civil servants to pay the price, the Prime Minister should first look at reducing the size of his Cabinet, cutting non-essential spending, and curbing excessive overseas travel by ministers.”

Ms Kumar said threatening the livelihoods of public servants was the wrong approach.

“Threatening workers' livelihoods is not leadership, it is an admission that the Government has run out of ideas.”