From the House by Pesi Fonua

When the 17 People's Representatives and nine Nobles' Representatives embark on their parliamentary Constituency Tours next week, they will have a lot of money to spend. Each People's Representative gets $250,000 to spend on their constituents, and each Nobles' Representative will have $50,000 to share with the people in their estates.

The Constituency Grant and Transfers allocation in this year’s National Budget amounts to a total of $7,162,600 compared with only $4,827,600 in the 2019-2020 National Budget (an annual increase of $2.335 million). The constituency fund is part of that allocation and expenditure is controlled by the individual MPs.

Deferred again

The Tongan Parliament was scheduled to resume yesterday 10 August but the sitting has been deferred, again, until 7 September.

Parliament's been deferred several times after it passed the $589.5 million Annual National Budget on 18 June.

After passing the Budget, Parliament was deferred to July 13, to give Standing Committees time for deliberation and public consultations over five Bills:

1. Foreign Investment Bill 2020
2. Employment Relations Bill 2020
3. Mental Health Bill 2020
4. Water Bill 2020
5. Food Bill 2020.

When the House resumed on July 13, members voted 21-0 to extend Parliament’s closure for another two weeks from July 13 until August 3 to enable Standing Committees to complete their deliberations and public consultations over only four Bills. The Mental Health Bill 2020 was not required to be resubmitted to the Standing committee for further deliberation.

The Chairpersons for the three Standing Committees which are deliberating over the four Bills are:

• Losaline Ma’asi for Standing Committee on Water Resources.
• Mo’ale Finau for the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Account.
• Semisi Fakahau for the Standing Committee on Food.

The No. 14, Vava’u People’s Representative, Dr Saia Piukala told the Matangi Tonga that proceedings of the Tongan Parliament had been deferred until 7 September.

Members of Parliament will go on their four weeks Constituency Tours next week and after they return the House is expected to resume its proceedings on 7 September.

When the 17 People's Representatives go on their Constituency Tours, they will have $250,000 each (total $4.25 million), while the nine Nobles’ Representative will have $50,000 each (total $450,000) to spend in their areas.

The Constituency Fund for "Grants and Transfers" of $7.162 miilion, includes the MPs constituency grants and other items. It amounts to the lion's share from the Tonga Parliament's total estimated expenditure of $13.759 million for the 2020-2021 financial year.

This fund has increased by over 48% on the previous year 2019-20.