Edtor,

THANK you Sione Lousiale Kava for covering some of the austere economic measures currently implemented by the USA Government in order to sustain economic stability in the region, thus steering it upward and avoid it sliding downward to recession again.

We are living in an age of austerity, and responsible government must without fail act swiftly to stave off being sucked into the bottomless black hole of debt. Here in UK, the policy of deficit cutting and lower spending was rolled out last year and not a single Public Service Department has escaped the cost cutting operation. We all have to sit up and re-think the way we work; locations of offices and official premises; travelling expenses and even our pensions are being looked at.

At the beginning of this year, I had to say goodbye to lots of my friends and colleagues who were made redundant from my particular department. Yesterday, we were told that more posts will also be axed in the next few months. So like the US, here in the UK and in Europe, people are genuinely suffering because of the economic downturn.

In the recent past of course, UK has shut down quite a few Embassies around the world, Tonga being one of them, because the UK Government realised that modern technology provides us with faster and more efficient methods of communication that are also more cost effective.

Tonga's economy of course is no different from the rest of the world, and I am sure that I'm not far from the truth when I say that it is probably worse than the rest of the world because we haven't got any natural resources, raw material or any industrial investment to draw upon during hard times. And in that respect, I do applaud the Prime Minister and the Tongan Government for closing down some of our foreign missions. The London mission is not an isolated case and the cost of running it must be re-examined with a fine-tooth comb like costs everywhere else in the Kingdom.

I know for a fact that the Government of Tonga owns outright the official residence "Greenbanks", and also the office in Central London. The Tongan Government also owns 1 x car (1TON). My rough estimate of the running cost of the office & staff would probably be over £30K (thirty thousand pounds) x 2.8 (conversion to Pa'anga) = T$84K (eighty four thousand pa'anga) a month x 12 mths = T$1,008,000 per year. The reality is that Tonga (from foreign aid and taxpayers) currently spends around a million and eight thousand pa'anga on staff, the running of the office and travel expenses alone for the London mission. We have yet to add the cost of running and maintaining of "Greenbanks" but I suspect that it will probably be more than the cost of running the office.

Do we really need to keep the London mission? Very sorry my good friend Katalin but I disagree with you here. In this day and age of austerity, re-assessments of strategies, methods of operation, locations etc in connection with Tonga public services need to be done and implemented because the needs of the nation are not in London but in Tonga.

I put forward 2 proposals for the debate:

1) Sell all the Government assets in London. This is the quickest way of making money available for Government operations in Tonga. Both properties would probably fetch between £15 to 20 million pounds or possibly more. (I don't recommend this - value of property in London is still growing and it is a very good investment for Tonga.)

2) Rent both properties: (I recommend this idea)
a) Greenbanks could fetch between £4K a week rent x 52 weeks = £208,000.00 per annum (today's currency conversation of 2.8) = T$582,400.00 pa'anga.
b) Office in central London could be rented out for between £2K to £3K. per week. There is a similar property near Paddington Station which is not too far away from the office and it is up for rent at £3,600.00 per week. The Tongan office is so central that businesses would be fighting to rent it.

In reality, the properties in London could give the Tongan Government a yearly income of over one million pa'anga. If you want to know more about renting property in London, log on to FOXTONS - a well known Estate Agency in the City of London.

And so what to do with the London mission:

1) Relocate the office to a cheaper place near Brussels - very nice but cheap. Look for location where the work can be done cheaply.

2) Or perhaps consider relocating the work to another part of the UK - much cheaper to run. There is a lovely city called Hull in the North East. This city is connected directly to Brussels by sea & by air, much faster & cheaper than London.

3) Reduce the number of staff and delegate responsibilities downward. This will save thousands of pa'anga in the budget.

4) Advise staff and their families in London to use public transport - purchase oyster cards for them; it would be far cheaper than being ferried around in the 1TON car. If any officials come from Tonga on a visit, buy them oyster cards as well as train fares in advance. It is ridiculous to hear that when Tongan officials arrive in London, vehicles are hired to drive them around. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world to hire a vehicle. Ironic isn't it, that whilst Tongan officials ride around in hired vehicles in London, Queen Elizabeth II & her staff travel by public train with tickets that have been purchased in advance.

I am sure that the Government knows that there is no other way out of the economic situation but to be prudent with the current budget and look for ways to make money rather then spend money that you don't have. Well, here is a little earner for the people of Tonga, right here in the UK.

Regards

Senolita Swan

senolita_swan_3 [at] msn [dot] com ( senolita_swan_3 [at] msn [dot] com)