Former PM blasts Solomons Government over spending

Former Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo has blasted the current Solomon Island Government’s fiscal management, questioning how a “good reserve” two years ago has evaporated with the Government now borrowing to pay its bills.

Speaking at a recent Economics Association of Solomon Islands event, Mr Lilo said he did not understand how, after building up a reserve of “magnitude” that the Government was in the position it was in today.

According to Mr Lilo the Government’s reserve has dropped from $SBD1.5 billion to $SBD150 million “in two years”. He urged EASI to keep an eye on the country’s current financial situation.

“We had good reserve some two years ago, now we are resorting to borrowing,”  Mr Lilo said.

“I don’t quite understand that, and that’s the king of fear that I want to put across to you as an association to keep an eye on. You need to keep an eye on that kind of trend.”

The former Prime Minister also used the example of the country’s fiscal position in the 1990s as an example of how things could go bad, quickly.

“In the 90s we have the benefit of the windfall revenue from our logging,” Mr Lilo said.

“We should have built a better economy but we squandered that and we left with no choice but to undergo a very painful exercise of structural adjustment in the late 90s.”