Dear Editor,

It is with great surprise that I read that both the Governor of the Central Bank, Denton Rarawa, and the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, Shadrack Fanega, blame the shortfall in government revenue for the lack of funds available to the government. It is less than a month since the Prime Minister announced to the Anti-Corruption Workshop that the government has lost $433 million due to missapropriation or misuse of government funds.

This is like saying "I don't have enough money for school fees because I didn't earn enough money", when the school fee money was spent on beer, or that the petrol tank is empty because I haven't put petrol in it, when there is a very obvious leak in the tank!! If the government had not lost $433 million, would it now have enough money? Why not stand up and say we don't have enough money because a whole lot of people have taken it? And what is being done to recover the $433 million, or to make sure that this abuse of public moneys never occurs again? It is embarassing that such fiscally astute people read the government balance sheet in such a colourful way.