Island administration had no funds to pay for fuel
Because Penrhyn island’s administration had not filed monthly reports to the Ministry of Finance, its bulk funding was suspended for three months. It had no money to purchase fuel.

Penrhyn’s Mayor Tini Ford advised Pitt Media Group on Friday that he is concerned that the island’s fuel supply which has already been rationed, will run out on Saturday.
The island’s MP Hon Wilkie Rasmussen said the fuel situation had suffered a set back when a planned delivery of 30,000 litres by the Samoan vessel did not eventuate. This was because the island administration did not pay for the fuel. Rasmussen said the reason the island administration could not pay was because its bulk funding had not been released by MFEM. In fact the island administration had not received any funds for three months as it had not submitted the required monthly reports to MFEM. Simply put, the island administration has no money.
Rasmussen said compiling the monthly and yearly report was a job which the island administration lacked the capacity to do. They have had to hire an outside person to do the job at a cost of $500.
As a result, MFEM has now cleared the bulk funding for the island administration.
Rasmussen said now that funding is back on, he is looking to get fuel and some foodstuffs to Penrhyn in the next week and a half.
One option is to utilize a fishing vessel which local fisherman Tony Armstrong already has at Pago. Rasmussen said he has spoken to Armstrong. This vessel is able to carry 6,000 litres. Rasmussen said there is also 4,000 litres of diesel fuel in the Police tank in Penrhyn which could be accessed.
Ford, for his part is not impressed that his requests for assistance to Ministers and Officials on Rarotonga have been to little effect. He says, he’s been contacting Ministers and their Support Office CEO’s for over a month and no action has been taken to make an urgent delivery to Penryhn.
Radio CI contacted the CEO of the Deputy Prime Ministers office, Patrick Arioka on Friday. He said his office has made arrangements to enable the island to use Te Kukupa’s fuel (4,000 litres) until they make contact with a fishing vessel in the area to make an urgent drop. Ford said the island still owes Police 1,000 litres of Te Kukupa’s storage fuel. Ford said he has had enough of the run-around; he first contacted Rarotonga for assistance 4-weeks ago and since then, 2 fuel deliveries (totalling 26,000 litres) have been made to Manihiki only. For a month now, the island has limited its power consumption use to only 12 hours.
The Minister of Finance may need to review MFEM policies regarding monthly reporting given the isolation of some outer islands and the lack of capacity to produce the required reports. -By Charles Pitt

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