Last Friday another constituency officially opened its district council officel to signal the further expansion of the Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) Government’s initiative to roll out community-focused development using the districts.

This time it was the Vaimauga No. 4 District Council office located at the Vaimea Primary School compound. The local MP and Minister of Police Prisons and Correction Services, Faualo Harry Schuster, used the occasion to urge the Government to triple its funding.

He said that the large population within his constituency warranted the proposed budgetary increase from the currently $1 million budget.

As an example he used his Vaimauga No. 4 constituency, saying his district comprised 26 villages with the local residents totalling over 15,000 in population, to justify why the Government should triple the funding to the districts.

Faualo’s concerns about the size of his constituency and how the $1 million district grant might not be enough to fund developmental projects to benefit 15,000-plus people has some merit.

In fact those concerns were bound to surface after the new Government first announced the initiative last year after entering office, knowing how disproportionate the population size of each one of Samoa’s constituencies is.

If the Vaimauga No. 4 constituency has a population of over 15,000 people then how many people do you think the constituency of Lepa has? Lepa comprises six villages including Lepa itself and has a total population of 1,429 (based on the 2006 Census).

Do the maths as part of a comparative analysis of the grant funding for these two constituencies and you immediately realise how it's like comparing apples and oranges, when the $1 million grant is divided by the number of residents in each district. A mother currently resident in Vaimauga No. 4 district will get about $66 unlike her peer in Lepa who will get over $700 from the district grant.

So Faualo is correct in that aspect in that the $1 million district grant is unlikely to cover all the developmental projects for such a highly populated district. In fact other Members of Parliament who currently represent constituencies in what used to be known as the Vaimauga West, Faleata West, Faleata East and Sagaga le Falefa regions -– can also justify their arguments for an increase in their district grants, as they represent constituencies in Samoa’s most heavily populated area.

But with the Government’s $1 million district grant initiative only in its infancy, we think it is too early for the Vaimauga No. 4 M.P. to call for the funding to be tripled, when the community is yet to know which projects will be approved for funding and what sectors will they cover to positively impact on the people’s lives.

If the Government is to increase the district grants budgetary allocation to $3 million a year as suggested by the M.P. then the country is looking at over $100 million going to the districts annually. But this raises the question of opportunity cost and how it will impact key sectors such as health, education, agriculture and fisheries, and community empowerment when Samoa’s economy is still in recession and export revenue critically short.

Due to the economic challenges that the country currently faces, with the COVID-19 pandemic decimating our top foreign currency earner in tourism, our Members of Parliament should be smart in how their constituencies through their District Committees expend the $1 million grant.

Therefore, the extra details that the Minister of Women Community and Social Development, Leota Laki Sio gave on the grant’s guidelines should help the District Committees make the right choices for their people.

His push for accountability of the initial $200,000 grant in terms of the submission of a closure report, financial statement and audit accounts certified by accountants from the Samoa Institute of Accountants is also a step in the right direction in terms of accounting of public funds.

We also applaud his Ministry’s decision to tie in the $1 million grant to a 4-year development plan, which should show what are the projects proposed and the funding that will be allocated.

It is early days yet for this ambitious Government initiative, but the framework that would govern the disbursement and monitoring of these public funds looks watertight. However, the real test is when the funding is transferred from the Treasury into the different districts’ bank accounts.

For now let’s not get ahead of ourselves and call for an increase in the $1 million district grants. Districts should be strategic in how they use the funding for projects that can change lives for the better. You might be surprised how small portions of funds for different community-based projects in your constituency can bring smiles to families’ faces.