We brought the Open Merit System because there was an issue of cronyism - Usamate

Minister for Infrastructure Jone Usamate says they implemented the Open Merit Recruitment System to improve the quality of human resources in the country because there was an issue of cronyism before.

While speaking on the Examination of Audit Reports of Government Ministries and Departments for the year ended 31st July 2016, Usamate says before, they are aware of people being selected based on their ethnicity and which province they were from.

He says the government needed to get rid of that to ensure that the best person is chosen for a particular position.

The Minister also says that SODELPA Leader Viliame Gavoka had said that anyone with a degree can go straight to a department but adds that is not true.

He says the Open Merit System does not only look at a person’s qualification but their skills and what they have achieved before.

Usamate adds some Opposition members who were in the civil service before are saying that the way they did things in the past was the best.

However he says anyone who looks in the past thinks the same but the only reason government developed a new system was because there were some shortcomings in the past.

Meanwhile SODELPA MP Inosi Kuridrani says if the government ministers cannot do the job, they should resign as people are suffering on the ground.

Kuridrani says it is simply wastage of time and resources for a government to spend months drawing up a budget plan and then not implementing it.