There will be no budget allocation for feeder roads next year.

Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Xavier Harry, confirmed this in Parliament on Friday.

Minister Harry said that since 2016, the country has spent nearly 5 billion vatu on feeder road programs, but there has been little to no visible development from the funding.

“Next year, there won’t be any feeder road fund because in 2016 we spent almost 5 billion on feeder roads, but there has not been any real impact. Now we want to be proactive , the money we allocate should be shared across all our public works projects in Vanuatu,” Minister Harry said.

He made the statement in response to comments from the MP for Malekula, Marcellino Barthelemy, who said that Parliament continues to approve large budgets each year but there is no real progress on road development.

“Parliament in 2016 or 2017 passed a supplementary budget of 5 billion vatu, and 3 billion was for feeder roads , but we never saw the results. Only politicians benefited from that money. We should give those funds back to agriculture. When we take these funds, we only use them in areas where voters live, but we need to put money in areas that produce. Malampa Province has no fleet, so let’s give money and trigger the fleet as well,” MP Barthelemy said.