Gov’t structure costing millions

By Lanuola Tusani Tupufia 25 July 2016, 12:00AM

The overstaffed government structure is costing the country millions while its organizations struggle to pay dividends to maintain its growing developments.  

This is according to the independent Member of Parliament for Salega East, Olo Fiti Afoa Va’ai.

During an interview with the Sunday Samoan, Olo said the current structure in government ministries is expensive and the country cannot afford it. 

“The structure that we have in ministries is costing our country millions,” said the M.P.  “It’s where we have about five to six Assistant Chief Executive Officers in one ministry. What I have noticed is when a new programme is introduced, a new department is established when we already have existing officers who can do the same work…most of the A.C.E.O.s are duplicating work of others.”

According to Olo some A.C.E.O.s all do work that only one person should do. 

“It’s no different from making the coconut cream,” he explained. 

“If you compare it to what’s happening now we have a person grating the coconut white and there’s another person squeezing out the cream…it’s ridiculous because one person should be doing that whole process.”

Olo pointed out that in the past years, some ministries had operated with fewer people and were able to get the job done faster. 

“But as the number of staff grew, the slower they got and the more money the government spends.”

The growing number of employees in the government does not reflect the revenue they generate. 

Olo believes that the government has the wrong priorities and poor planning in generating employment. 

“That’s not the way to generate employment by having more A.C.E.O.s,” he said.

 “If they want to generate employment they should look at factory work that will take in more people, and invest in the private sector. 

About 60 percent of our revenue comes from the private sector and that is where the government should focus.”

The M.P. added that there are a lot of things that needs to be made right but it’s unfortunate that the country had spoken and voted for the current government. 

Veteran M.P. for Falealupo, Aeau Peniamina Leavaise’eta had a different view. 

He said while he agrees there are many A.C.E.Os in ministries, he believes that each one of them is specialized in a different area.

By Lanuola Tusani Tupufia 25 July 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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