Opposition member David Dei Pacha questioned Moses Garu about the status of the funding to which the Minister said there was no such project this year.
A supplementary question was fired by East Choiseul Member of Parliament Manasseh Sogavare who said it was unbelievable that the minister did not know the status of the project.
“This project was supposed to be going but the way the minister responded indicated the government is hiding something,” Mr Sogavare said.
The minister explained that there was no $10 million ROC funding for the project this year, instead, it was the government that funded the $10 million solar project.
Opposition leader Dr Derek Sikua added that the funding was started in 2008 under his leadership as prime minister and it was a solar project for schools in various constituencies in the country.
It raised the question whether the money was diverted and shouldered by the government afterwards.
Finance Minister Rick Hou said: “I don’t know if the funds were kept somewhere because as far as I understand, it’s in the budget”.
Dr Sikua said he was concerned because the Finance Minister himself had no idea about the funds.
“There's surely something fishy going on with the project that touches the rural populace since its inception.
“It was for the rural people and not for political games.”
Dr Sikua told Parliament the explanation from the ministers raised more questions than answers because it does not specify in the budget where the funding was allocated.
By Elliot Dawea
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