Solomons' Finance Minister says BUA is moving forward amidst contrary claims

Solomons' Finance Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo has defended the progress of the government’s Bottom-Up Approach program amidst growing criticism that the flagship policy is coming to a standstill due to the government’s weak financial position.

But contrary to media speculation reported by a section of the media, the BUA is making headlong progress on the process of its implementation, Mr Darcy said.

“Rather than facing a dead end, the BUA policy is steadily moving ahead.”

“What we are doing will produce results very soon. Our rural population needs to understand that previous governments have all talked about the bottom-up approach on way or the other but this government is putting special emphasis on to its implementation like no other government has done before”, he said.

A report carried by one of the newspapers has quoted a senior government official saying the the government’s core BUA policy is facing a a dead end as a result of an overspent budget.

But Mr Darcy said the report was incorrect.

“There is nothing to suggest that we have ran out of resources to implement the bottom up approach policy.”

“This 2007 Budget and even the 2007 Supplememtary Budget have featured a lot of BUA program. I am surprised with a lot of people saying the Supplementary Budget did not reflect the bottom up approach”, he said.

Source: GCU