[Photo: FILE]
The Sugar Industry Ministry will strengthen the monitoring of cane access road projects in the coming financial year following concerns over the delivery of works funded through the national budget.
Sugar Industry Minister Tomasi Tunabuna stated this while responding to Opposition MP Parveen Bala during the Committee of Supply debate on the 2026/2027 National Budget.
Bala raised questions on the effectiveness of the $2 million allocated for cane access roads.
“What we have heard during our visit is that the government does its part, that is, for the allocation of funds to do the Cane Access Road. But the money is given, and the contractors who are engaged are not doing the job. So who is monitoring? Are we going to allocate two to three million dollars year in, year out, and when the job is not done?”
Tunabuna, says they have also received a lot of concerns with the monitoring of the programs that have been funded by the government.
He says this is not only in the agriculture sector but also in the sugar sector.
Tunabuna says they will tighten oversight in the next financial year.
“We are going to tighten up this coming year, and we will employ both our ministry staff, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Sugar, together with our sugar stakeholders by deploying officers from both the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Sugar to monitor projects more closely.”
Meanwhile, Tunabuna adds that the government will continue its Farm Incentive Program aimed at increasing sugarcane production and rewarding productive farmers.
