Claim sparks fiery row in Parliament

Tempers flared and voices were raised relatively early into proceedings of the first session of Parliament in 2015 yesterday.

The verbal spat led to Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, repeatedly telling members of the Opposition party to “stop listening to and spreading gossip.”

But his counterpart, Palusalue Fa’apo II, refused to budge.

He retaliated by accusing the government of wasting money; reminding members of the public that they will always find a voice with the Tautua Party, should the government ignore their concerns.

The “gossip” Tuilaepa was referring to apparently dates back to the hosting of the Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S) conference last September.

According to the Tautua Party’s Shadow Minister of Police, Papali’i Lio Masipa’u, the overtime for hundreds of Police officers who worked throughout the conference has not been paid.

The Fa’asaleleaga Member of Parliament told Parliament that each officer was promised $75 per day for all the days of the conference, which lasted nearly two weeks.

Papali’i made the claim during the general debate of the $10 million Supplementary Budget for 2014/2015 tabled by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, at the last session.

Part of financing the supplementary budget is $2.58million that remained from the budget for S.I.D.S.

Papali’i said it’s disappointing that with more $2million from S.I.D.S remaining and yet the allowance and overtime for Police officers has remained unpaid.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa immediately took the floor to object. He told Parliament that the reason for the delay was that the Ministry of Finance had sent some questions to the accounts section of the Police to answer.

“The Police sat on it for three months,” Tuilaepa said, adding that this has since been sorted and the allowance was paid last year.

Papali’i, however, was not satisfied. He pointed out that the allowance Tuilaepa was referring to was in relation to the auxiliary Police officers.

“But the allowance for regular Police officers has not been paid,” he insisted.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa again took the floor to reemphasise that this is not true. He said Cabinet had already given a directive for the allowance to be paid.

“The Ministry has already been told to implement the directive from Cabinet,” he said. At that point, Speaker of Parliament, La’auli Leuatea Polata’ivao, ordered Papali’i to move on. Still not satisfied, Papali’i said he would move on but “at least I now know that the Prime Minister was not aware” about the allowance.

Papali’i’s dig brought Tuilaepa back to his feet.

“The problem with you is that you are talking from hearsay,” he said. “I’m talking about documented stuff, not hearsay.”

Tuilaepa said he was aware about the allowance issue because the Police officers wrote to him.

“Stop listening to gossip and spreading gossip like Palusalue,” Tuilaepa said.

This angered Palusalue who immediately interjected.

“The Police will come to us if you don't do (what they want),” Palusalue said. “I also want to correct something, it’s not an allowance we are talking about, it’s the overtime for all the regular Police officers who worked during S.I.D.S.”

But Tuilaepa would not be outdone. He insisted that the money was paid in October just before White Sunday.

“Let’s talk about some new things,” Tuilaepa said. “Stop bringing back rubbish.”