The Minister of Information, Hon Afu'alo Matoto, dismissed a report in one of the local papers today that the Minister of Finance, Hon. Siosiua 'Utoikamanu had resigned.

Afu said it was a normal practice that whenever a minister is away overseas, automatically the Prime Minister take over the acting position, but in Siosiua's case because the Prime Minister is also away overseas, Afu'alo then became the Acting Minister for Finance, "but I think the Minister of Finance is already back in the kingdom," he said.

Afu said that a rumour that the Minister of Finance was resigning had been circulating around for quite some time.