There has been a mismanagement of funds that have been set aside for education in Tonga and this could cause a massive scandal and would harm the country’s reputation. Political observers in Tonga have stated that they are concerned about this scandal and how the county would look in the eyes of the internationals.
A Tongan government minister and her husband were convicted for misappropriating money from an Australian-funded vocational education program and will spend up to six years in prison after being caught in what the judge said was a “highly devised plan”.
Tonga’s Minister for Infrastructure and Tourism, ‘Akosita Lavulavu, and her husband, Etuate Lavulavu, have both been jailed after being found guilty in the Supreme Court of obtaining money by false pretenses. ‘Akosita had no previous offences, but her husband, a former cabinet minister himself, was convicted of bribery in 2016 and forced to resign from Parliament.
Their crimes involved the misappropriation of more than $550,000 from the Ministry of Education, through making false claims about the correct number of students who were enrolled at the couple’s educational institute.
The former Minister for Infrastructure and Tourism, Semisi Sika, is promoting a petition calling for ‘Akosita Lavulavu to be impeached, and he says the court’s decision is a sensible one. He quoted “All I can say is that it’s just about time that we put people in proper position. They’ve been convicted, they’ve been proven guilty on this specific case, They have not shown any remorse or any regret, no attempt to pay the money they’ve misused, the tax and government funds that they have misused over the years. So I totally and fully agree with the ruling and the sentences that’s been delivered,”
The couple are appealing the decision, with the hearing set to take place at some point between September and March next year, their application for bail was rejected. The case has drawn extra attention due to the origin of the misappropriated funds.
They were applied for and received by the couple through the Tonga Technical Vocational Educational Training grant program, which was funded by the Australian and New Zealand governments. Tevita Motulalo is a senior researcher at Tongan think-tank, the Royal Oceania Institute and said the case makes for some awkward conversations with Tonga’s development partners.
