The French high commissioner in Papeete, Adolphe Colrat, has dismissed calls for Paris to give French Polynesia more money.
This comes amid a decline of the local economy and fears of a social explosion.
Unions and the territory's president put the onus on France, saying the structure of the economy is a legacy of the French nuclear weapons testing regime.
But Mr Colrat has told RFO television that there is no hidden treasure to dip into and that with autonomy comes responsibility.
"The savings on the running of the territory we know. There is waste. The court news is full of cases of corruption, fake employees and squandering. The accounts office has produced numerous reports on the management failures that could fill a library."
