28 Jul 2003

Former Cook Islands MP to lay complaint over EU funding allocation

2:31 pm on 28 July 2003

A former Cook Islands MP is to lay a formal complaint with the government and the Honorary British High Commissioner over the distribution of European Union funding.

Teina Bishop, who resigned as an MP last week, says the EU funding should not be channelled into church groups associated with government MPs.

Mr Bishop says 88 thousand US dollars is going into eight community groups, some of which are religious organisations and the EU should not be funding religion.

The Honorary British High Commissioner Mike Mitchell says he'll forward any written complaints he receives to the British High Commission in Wellington, but he says it is the Cook Islands government that determines how EU funding is spent.