Former Minister for Finance and Treasury and Member of Parliament (MP) for South Malaita Rick Hou stressed that it is really disappointing to see the country is experiencing cash flow problem, while in the first quarter of 2017.
Speaking to the Solomon Star in an exclusive interview, Hou said the cash flow crisis is expected to happen but not as early as it is now.
He said the year just started and the problem arise, which does not speak well of how this situation will persist and affects the country, throughout the year.
“What really surprises me is it happens at the beginning of the year,” he expressed.
Hou added that if contractors and service providers are not receiving payments from the government then this shows that the country is in a very bad situation, more so, when it creeps into the welfare of public servants.
He warned government to look at both income and expenditure within the balance sheet, stressing that this is where we fail to adhered to, therefore led this country into this serious cash flow crisis.
Furthermore, he blamed the minister responsible for failing to be careful on cash management, which ends up like this.
He said government priorities have to be put straight to avoid expenses that will exhaust the limited resources at hand.
Hou also said that government must stop spending when funding is not enough and start to look at ways to stop the leakage.
He further stated that loopholes in the revenue collections of the government must be patched up too, because some source of revenues through taxes might exempt, thus resulted in very low revenue collections.
Deputy leader of the parliamentary opposition group said the government is answerable to this situation, because they control the finance and the economy of the country.
“When the contingency warrant was exhausted, in this case we have no funds for rainy days.”
By AATAI JOHN
