Lisiate 'Akolo at his press conference today. Nuku‘alofa, 10 January 2014.

Tonga’s ousted Finance Minister Lisiate ‘Akolo told journalists today that he will not resign and he believes that he is still the Minister of Finance.

Lisiate called a press conference this morning and confirmed that he had not handed in his resignation, and that he had not received any official dismissal notice from the Prime Minister, who demanded his resignation this week.

Lisiate was shut out of a Special Meeting of the Tongan Cabinet on January 8. A fellow Cabinet minister, Hon Clive Edwards yesterday told Radio Australia that the Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakano had fired his Minister of Finance.

But Lisiate said today that he was still awaiting a reply from Lord Tu‘ivakano regarding two letters he sent to the PM yesterday, one explaining his disappointment that he was not allowed to attend the special meeting of the Cabinet on January 8, and the other to tell him that he would not resign.

“I can’t plead guilty for something I did not do,” said Lisiate this morning.

"I am still a minister."

Accusations

Lisiate said that in a letter on January 6, the Prime Minister asked him to resign, and accused him of being “disobedient, arrogant and uncooperative”, charges that Lisiate denies.

He believed his talk on a radio program on December 27 had been misunderstood.

But he pointed out that was what he was trying to do on the radio program was exactly what the Acting Secretary to Cabinet did again on Radio Tonga yesterday, January 9, explaining to the Tongan public about the 5% Cost of Living Adjustment for public servants, which will start from this month until the end of the current financial year in June.

Public Service salary rise

Lisiate suspected that the Prime Minister was unhappy with how he was going to implement the 5% salary rise.

He said that after Cabinet agreed on the 5% salary rise on December 20 he got his staff to start with individual ministries to find out the following requirements:

• if they could internally reshuffle their budget allocation to fund the 5% rise.
• to assess their Contingency Fund to meet unexpected needs.
• the possibility of a Supplementary Budget to be presented to parliament.

He said that from the outset it was clear that six ministries just could not implement the 5% reshuffle to increase salaries. For such a reshuffle to take place the minister concerned and the Minister of Finance must agree.

He pointed out that 52% of the Tonga government annual budget goes on salaries, and the 5% increase will push it up to 57%.

On leave

Lisiate said that he went on leave to New Zealand on December 28 and he was not due back at work until January 18, but while he was away, the CEO and his staff were working with ministries to figure out what was the best way to implement the 5% salary rise that Cabinet had agreed to.

With six of the 12 government ministries already admitting that they could not reshuffle their budget allocations to pay the 5% salary rise, there was the possibility for government to submit to parliament a Supplementary Budget.

The proposed 5% salary rise was for all civil servants, including the Army, Police and the Members of Parliament.

No supplementary budget

During his absence however the Acting Secretary to Cabinet informed the CEO for the Ministry of Finance that the Prime Minister would prefer government ministries to reshuffle their budget allocations to meet their salary rise but not to submit a Supplementary Budget to Parliament.

Lisiate said he did not know about message from the Prime Minister for no Supplementary Budget until he returned to Tonga after he was given the letter in Auckland demanding for his resignation by January 8.

Lisiate adamant that for him to resign was tantamount to an admission of guilt that he had done wrong, and he was convinced that he did not do anything wrong.

Lisiate said that he had been told that the Prime Minister was now the Acting Minister of Finance, but as far as he himself was concerned he was still the Minister of Finance.

He said that under the law, for the Prime Minister to dismiss a Cabinet Minister it would become official when it was endorsed by the King.

Depressed economy

Meanwhile, the Tongan taxpayers are querying why the Tonga government decided to implement a salary rise at this point of time when the Tongan economy remains in such a depressed state. It has already been reported that there will be a deficit in Tonga’s new Annual Budget, because of declining foreign earnings.

In the current government budget there is a $35 million Budget Support funding from aid donors, and Lisiate said that most of this fund goes on salaries, and the donors were reasonably happy with it, “but eventually donors will start questioning the logic of aid on salaries.”

Concerned over medical bills

When asked what projects he would have liked to see completed before the end of his term, Lisiate said, that one was to establish a special fund for the disabled, and another was to get medical insurance for Cabinet Ministers.

He said there used to be a medical insurance policy but somehow the agent no longer existed, and they had not been able to find a new one. However, it remained an area of great concern because of the increasing numbers of Cabinet Ministers and government officials who got sick while traveling overseas.

He revealed that he himself was rushed to Middlemore Hospital, in Auckland with a chest pain, and it was discovered to be a minor case, so he was discharged almost immediately. He paid for it himself and then later tried to get compensation from government.

Then the latest medical emergency for the cabinet was when the PM was rushed to hospital in New York and required an emergency operation for a heart blockage.

He said it was unfortunate that the government had not been able to identify an insurance agent.