It is getting hot in Samoa and now the weather office has confirmed this as well. Samoa is facing a prolonged period of high temperatures which is defined as a heatwave. Heatwaves are not to be taken lightly; the phenomenon has taken lives.

What is also hot on the minds of people in Samoa is how $175,000 has gone missing from a district council and there is no trace of it. All that is being done now is finger-pointing. The blame game continues with no resolution on what has happened to the money.

The latest development in this saga is that the Minister of Finance Lautimuia Uelese Vaai brushed off suggestions that his associate minister should be suspended pending an investigation following a complaint lodged by his district over the missing $175,000 from the $1 million grant.

Lautimuia said there was no substantial evidence to confirm the accusations at this point noting there were allegations of other district committee members being involved.

Fa’asaleleaga No.2 district council members discovered that $175,000 disbursed last November had not been made aware to them. They found out that the money was allegedly given to their member of parliament Magele Sekati Fiaui and the district council secretary.

What is even more perplexing is that even after the alleged embezzlement of the fund, more money was given to the district which still seems not to appear in the district council account. Surprisingly, the MP is still dealing with the government grant to his constituency.

He may not be responsible for the missing funds but he should stay clear of dealing with other funds until this matter is clear. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Women, Community, and Social Development have to prioritise the investigation and get to the bottom of this.

The public, especially the people of this constituency have the right to know what happened to the money meant to pay the staff of the district council. This is an incident that should not be taken lightly because this highlights how money being given to the district councils can be easily misappropriated.

There are too many discrepancies that are coming up now. In more than one district council, the district offices have been built on land belonging to either the MP or his family member, in some constituencies the utilisation of the grants is not very well thought of.

This incident should be raising alarm at the top level and there should be a call by the Prime Minister to halt activities and audits to be carried out in all constituencies one by one and by an independent auditor to show how well the money has been used. This would show the effectiveness of the development grants and if it should be continued.

Right now, the development grants are not 100 per cent effective and there is more than one flaw in the system. At best, this handout of money to the constituencies looks like extra funds for the MP to please people.

One MP has even encouraged his constituents to buy household appliances with the money they receive. Many want to give this out as cash. This defeats the purpose of the district development grants.

Right now, the people want to know where the $175,000 has gone and who is accountable for the mess. People are also watching if the accountable person would face the full brunt of the law. The silence from the authorities is deafening.

Getting back to the heat, hopefully, there is a contingency plan for water supply should low dam levels cause no or slow water supply to some areas. There are also dangers of fires as things get drier and because water supply has been impacted, firefighting would be impacted.

In terms of agriculture, whatever little is being produced will also feel the brunt of the dry and hot weather. There is also danger to human health. People of all ages need to keep hydrated and there would be a water demand, hopefully, retailers and suppliers of bottled water do not try to use this situation to their advantage.