A redeployment of funds from the 2022-2023 budget will allow the Fiji government to immediately release a budget of $10 million to the University of the South Pacific.
Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, said the government is in talks with USP and hopes to reach an agreement on a repayment plan that will be funded in future budgets in addition to USP’s regular annual grant, which will be reinstated in the 2023-2024 budget.
Rabuka confirmed that there will be no mini-budget this year because funds will be redeployed to meet the government’s immediate priorities.
Rabuka also claimed that the redeployment will also accommodate additional funding requests from ministries and other agencies.
The former government of Voreqe Bainimarama withheld payments since 2019 over a protracted battle with the institution's deported Vice Chancellor, Pal Ahluwalia, now operating in exile out of Samoa.
The Fiji government owed the institution $FJ78.4 million.