Former Member of Parliament and Speaker of the National Parliament, Sir Waetaben Tabusasi, has issued a strong challenge to the National Government, urging a total policy shift back toward state-managed services to revive the country’s infrastructure networks.
Sir Ben is demanding the resurrection of the defunct Public Works Department (PWD) and the Marine Department, the two central columns of pre-privatization governance.
He argues that bringing these bodies back from the dead is the only viable cost-cutting strategy left to stabilize a national development budget currently bled dry by outsourcing.
According to the veteran statesman, a dedicated, state-run PWD would eliminate the expensive and lengthy delays that have left the country’s roads in a permanent state of disrepair.
“My honest thought is that the government has to be serious about development in the country. Especially when it comes to infrastructure development, the Public Works Department has to come back,” Sir Ben said.
Sir Ben took direct aim at the standard practice of using the government’s centralized tendering system to hire private contractors for essential civic work.
He characterized the current state of roadside maintenance as an unregulated, opportunistic industry.
“As it is now, we keep contracting people who only do ‘fundraising’ on the roads after the rain. It’s been going on for years now.”
He argued that the continuous, year-round deterioration of primary transit roads across the country is the direct cost of abolishing the PWD.
Relying entirely on rigorous, bureaucratic, and tedious private tendering processes has only systematically rewarded delays while leaving the traveling public stranded in perpetual mud and potholes.
“Bad road conditions almost all year around is the only reason for the removal of the PWD,” he noted critically.
He said the systemic failures seen on land are mirrored at sea.
Sir Ben pointed to the domestic shipping sector as a glaring casualty of the same policy shift, which saw the government dismantle the National Maritime fleet years ago.
“We sold all the government-run vessels that served the uneconomical routes, and now we have the constituency paying for them and trying to run the vessels. Is it working out now?” he questioned.
Sir Ben raised questions regarding accountability over taxpayer-funded assets, suggesting that the line between public property and private gain has blurred significantly when leaders leave office.
“I think the former MPs losing their seats are only turning the vessels into their private companies when they leave as MPs. It’s happening now.”
The critique follows years of public debate over the sustainability of constituency-managed shipping grants, which saw state-owned shipyards and maintenance hubs sold off entirely to private operators.
“See what’s happening now with the so-called constituency vessels. Are they still operational?” Sir Ben asked.
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