Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad has hit out at critics who are claiming his close association with the Pacific Polytech Institute.

In the new National Budget, the government has allocated an increased grant of $5 million to the institution, which has come under attack.

Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry says the increased grant raises serious concerns regarding the institution’s record and its close connections to the Minister.

He claims that the value of its training programs has been questioned by industry sources, adding it is appalling that several other well-established vocational and training institutions collectively receive grants of just $3.5 million.

Chaudhry has called for an investigation into it.

Meanwhile, when asked by FBC News, the Finance Minister admits he is aware that some people criticize simply because they do not like someone in the institution.

Prasad says the number of graduates from Pacific Polytech speaks for itself, with more than one thousand students already graduated and joining the workforce.

“Those who are criticizing them should go and look at the number of students that they have trained and the backgrounds of these students. The large majority of them are iTaukei students who have fallen off the track, who are in years 9, 10, 11, and 12, and these are people who have been trained.”

Prasad adds that the budget for all tertiary and technical institutions was assessed by the Higher Education Commission of Fiji and certified before recommendations were made for funding.

“It’s not Biman Prasad who decides that Pacific Polytech, FNU, or USP or other smaller institutes get this. Of course, we are not able to give everything that the Higher Education Commission recommends. In fact, the Higher Education Commission recommended a much higher budget for Pacific Polytech and some other institutions as well, but as the government, we had to decide.”

Prasad adds that most of these critics do not understand how institutions such as Pacific Polytech are funded and resort to making racist comments.

He says these institutions are producing graduates to meet labor demands.

The Finance Minister says the Fiji National University has not been able to train an adequate number as per the scholarships provided to them by the government, and it’s good to see that institutions like Pacific Polytech are accommodating these numbers.

Prasad says the government equally supports all institutions.