![[Photo: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji]](https://www.fijivillage.com/news_images/20301133960ade5c7ac4baa34bd9c7.jpg)
Parliament has approved the government guarantee for the Fiji Development Bank totaling $170 million.
While speaking in his right of reply on the motion for parliament to give the approval for the guarantee, Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says opposition members have neglected to acknowledge the fact that every year, since FDB was created, all governments have been approving the guarantee for the FDB to go out into the market and borrow money.
Sayed-Khaiyum also labelled the opposition’s contributions as imbecilic as they talk about issues about Fiji Airways and other matters.
Speaker Ratu Epeli Nailatikau said that imbecilic is not unparliamentary language when a point of order was raised by SODELPA MP, Lynda Tabuya.
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SODELPA MP, Ro Filipe Tuisawau also raised a point of order however Ratu Epeli made it clear that imbecile is not unparliamentary term.
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Imbecilic means stupid or foolish.
Meanwhile, Sayed-Khaiyum says in 2018 parliament approved a $160 million guarantee to FDB and $143 million was utilised, in 2019 $160 million was guaranteed and $138 million was utilised while in 2020 $160 million was approved and $145 million was utilised.
Sayed-Khaiyum also raised the question what glory days of FDB is SODELPA MP, Aseri Radrodro talking about.
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He says when the Prime Minister was the Minister for Finance, hundreds of bad debts for FDB had to be written off.
Sayed-Khaiyum also says the problem is that people come to the parliamentary chamber without clean hands and they pontificate about this.
He further says the CEO of Fiji Airways, Andre Viljoen is a financial expert.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the loan given to Fiji Airways was prior to his appointment as Chairperson of FDB.
He asks where is the conflict as Viljoen did not sit on the board to approve the loan.
The Attorney General also raised the opposition’s continuous obsession with expatriates.
He says the same people do not have problems when we have expatriates as coaches for our 7s, 15s, netball and football teams.
He also says under the SDL government, FDB and FNPF lent to the Momi project which was handled by a person from NZ who is now in prison.
Sayed-Khaiyum says FDB was managing the loan while some people within the FDB management at the time allegedly got the landscaping management contract.
