By ANDREW ALPHONSE
THE Southern Highlands province is set to see some ‘major transformation’ over the next five years in terms of infrastructure development, service delivery and capacity building.
Governor Anderson Agiru announced this on Tuesday in Mendi when passing the 2008 SHPG budget appropriation bill of K180 million.
He expressed confidence that the people would see and benefit from some tangible developments in service delivery, new infrastructure and capacity building.
The budget consists of total revenue of K93,051,500 from internal sources and K89,956,500 (with K59 million ceiling recurrent and K27,956,500 from development grants) appropriated by the National Government under the 2008 national budget.
“The total appropriation bill for the province stands at K180,007,500.”
He said the provincial government’s internal revenue sources identified were realistic and could be obtained this fiscal year, adding that among the many, is K25 million development levy from the Moran projects.
He said that further increase in the revenue projection for this year was due to additional benefits from the natural resources including the North West Moran project.
Mr Agiru said the budget had been framed around seven key areas based on the National Government’s medium term development strategy (MTS).
He said that the K93,051,500 revenue projections for this year have been appropriated under the following sectors: Infrastructure – K30.06 million; education – K11.45 million; health – K4 million; economic services – K33.55 million; law and order K5 million; management and capacity building – K19.85 million; HIV/ AIDS – K200,000; operational activities K9.81 million; general overheads – K14.56 million; tree planting – K300,000; and, K400,000 towards the eight districts for planning to draw down their K10 million district development grants.
Mendi MP and acting deputy governor Pr Isaac Joseph welcomed the budget, saying it was “development driven and people’s budget and equally distributed to all corners of the province”.