PM TUILAEPA RUBBISHES APOLOGY CLAIMS
By: Joshua Lafoa’i
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi has rubbished public claims that unless the Vaigaga EFKS Church and the Vaigaga Primary School Committee apologize to him, their new Primary School Building will not be built.
The accusation is by ex-member of parliament for Faleata Urban West (changed to Faleata No. 2) and former HRPP MP, Faumuina Wayne Fong who questioned the motives behind the Government change of mind to slash plans for Vaigaga Primary School.
Faumuina claims that the Vaigaga EFKS church and the village committee were told to apologize to the Prime Minister in order for the Vaigaga Primary School plans to go ahead.
Faumuina did not name the office in which the alleged advice originated.
But In rubbishing the ex-HRPP MP, Prime Minister labeled the claims for an apology as “idiotic.”
“That is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard. The Government does not waste its valuable time with school yard tactics and petty games insinuated by that desperate faipule,” refuted the Prime Minister during his Taimi ma le Palemia weekly television program aired Sunday evening by TV Samoa.
In justifying the government decision to put the Vaigaga Primary School building on the back burner, Tuilaepa noted that although the project was to be funded by the World Bank, the end did not justify the means. For example, the design work alone is in the neighborhood of $600,000. And that does not include the actual construction which would have increased the new school building project expenses to over $1 million tala.
“We can build two to three Primary Schools like the Safotulafai Primary School, (dedicated last week and funded by the Government of Japan at a cost of under $300,000) with that amount,” added the Prime Minister.
He said that paramount to Government is for all requests for new School Buildings from villages to be treated equally without any preferential treatment.
“Many of our schools are built at an estimated cost of $300,000 to $500,000 for the whole completed project. This school is setting a very high precedent, and the project hasn’t even started and yet we’ve dished out $600,000 tala already,” continued the Prime Minister.
“Faumuina’s misinformation and false claims is also a dirty campaign strategy to push his FAST political party’s agenda.”
Faumuina has yet to clarify whether the alleged advice to the Vaigaga EFKS Church and School Committee to apologize to the Prime Minister was verbal or written, and if so, who made the apology demand.
