Listening to the election promises in 2025 begs the question of whether most political parties still think that the government is a cash cow, allowing millions to go to waste.

In 2021, Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi played two cards that ensured votes, one was the $1 million district grant and the other was reversing the decision to tax the income of priests on the back of the ruling party losing favour because of its dictatorship style of governance and no inclination towards being accountable. 

This year, FAST may not have revealed much about their manifesto, but they have said to add another half a million to most constituencies. To date, the spending by the 51 districts has been kept under wraps and is unavailable to members of the public wanting to know how almost $153 million has been spent. This shows that accountability and transparency have not been traits for any of the governments so far.

On Monday, more districts signed on to get their third million. As it stands, 44 of the 51 constituencies have now received their third million. The use of this final million is very questionable. What guarantee is that the money will not be used for campaigning and election bribes? The bribes can be very easily disguised as help for families. Many people are yet to see how the money has benefited them. Many of the former members of parliament are still district chairmen, and they are running again.

For FAST to suggest that an extra half a million will be splashed around is an indicator, how some politicians view the use of public money. For many, it is just free money. The district grant has not been used for its intended purpose. It is very clear now that people have profited from the grants, but very little was done to improve lives. This week, the National University of Samoa's results came out, and students whose fees are paid from the grant found out that their fees are unpaid, and they cannot get their results. Their future looks bleak.

What if the new government that comes in scraps the district grant project? What happens to these students and their educational aspirations? Whatever the political parties have said, there has been no one talking about education, health and improving infrastructure.

What we are listening to are election promises with no suggestions on how they will be financed. We are not being given a detailed picture of how these promises will be achieved. How does FAST intend to provide the extra half a million on top of the million to the constituencies? Is there a vault that the public is unaware of? Similarly, the promises made by the Human Rights Protection Party sound good, but no real projection has been given on what impact it would have on the budget, and if it would present a robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario.

This election is like watching an auction. One party has made bids already, and now the others have the chance to outbid the already high-stakes offer. There are two very big questions with each of the bids or promises being put forward. Are they just empty promises to garner votes, and how will they be financed?

The district grants have been the biggest waste of taxpayers' money in recent history. There was no accountability and transparency in the use of the funds. There was no action taken on alleged corrupt practices. Will we head down the same road with most of the election promises?

Let us see which politicians commit to transparency, accountability and ridding corruption. Without good governance, all election promises are empty.