Where has the money gone? District councils claiming that they too were dissolved with the dissolution of parliament is the most laughable excuse given yet for the abuse of public funds.

As a result of such a decision, university fees for some students remain unpaid. The National University of Samoa has not released their results, and this means that these students will most likely be unable to attend school for the next semester. For some, this may spell the end of their academic life. This has happened because the district council made a promise to fund these students’ future, but failed on their part because some council members decided to take advantage of the dissolution of parliament.

Amazingly, 44 districts were given their third million of the district grant last week. How can some district councils claim that they are dissolved and yet, without any shame, receive the third million? This does not look good for the government or the district councils. This is a blatant misuse of public funds. If the money has been given by the government, where is it going? There were red flags about the management of the district grants from the beginning. Yet, all calls fell on deaf ears, and nothing has been done to ensure that the use of the grants is transparent and that people in the district council are accountable.

The district grants are not a bad idea. They can help improve lives. It can help provide education for children, farming equipment for the farmers and tools for the fishermen. It can also help resolve infrastructure woes for many villages. However, there was never any foresight on how this money was to be used. The people in positions to manipulate the money have done so. There have been third parties, like businesses, who have also benefited from this scheme. Why has this happened? Because there were no mechanisms in place to ensure transparency and accountability of the public funds. Alarm bells should ring even if $2 is unaccounted, but here we are, when millions have been misused, but everyone is silent.

It is also shocking to hear that the Samoa Uniting Party and the Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi party want to continue with the grants without having in place mechanisms for accountability. Last year, the Australian government announced a portal that allows every Australian citizen to track every dollar and cent used on aid. Why can't we do that? The government ministries responsible for the grant keep saying that money was distributed after looking at the financial reports of the district councils, yet they have never made any attempts to put these reports in a public forum for every person in this nation to see how the millions have been used or misused.

Meanwhile, a mother from A’ana Alofi No.1 is pleading for answers as her daughter’s dreams of a university education. Like dozens of other families, she has discovered that her daughter’s results at the NUS are being withheld because tuition fees were never paid, even though the district council had assured them the costs would be fully covered under the $1 million District Development Grant.

“She did everything right,” the mother told the Samoa Observer. “She worked so hard this semester. She passed her classes, she stayed up late studying every night, and now she’s being told she can’t get her results. What kind of future does she have now?” The emotional toll on the family has been devastating. The daughter, a first-year student and the first in her family to attend university, was depending on the grant to pursue her degree. But when results were released this week, she was blocked from accessing them due to an outstanding balance, one that the family believed had already been paid through the district council.

The mother said she feels betrayed: “We were told not to worry about the fees, that the district council had everything sorted through the grant. Now they’re blaming government dissolution, frozen funding, everything except themselves. But we’re the ones paying the price. My daughter is paying the price.”

It is not too late. The government, caretaker or not, has the responsibility to hold people accountable. Is this the legacy this government is leaving behind, where students’ dreams are being crushed because people in district councils have found a way to use the district grants for their benefit?

Step up and end corruption.