PNG failing to meet goals: Bart
THE Opposition has expressed concern that despite having millions of available kina, Papua New Guinea is lagging behind in fulfilling its millennium development goals.
Deputy OppositionLeader and Lae MP Bart Philemon said he was concerned that the national efforts guided by the 2005 – 2010 medium-term development strategy (MTDS) was a “wishful strategy”.
He said what this means is that efforts to reduce extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, and empower woman , reducing child and maternal mortality rates and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases will continue to be major problems.
He said, Papua New Guinea as a UN member, had joined the rest of the world in 2000 to sign the international commitments to reduce extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower woman, and reduce child and maternal mortality rates.
Mr Philemon said this in a telephone interview with NBC’s Mulai Robby last Friday, while discussing the Department of Finance commission of inquiry.
He said something as important as prudent management of our financial affairs should be better handled than the way it has dragged on for two years.
“I’m concerned that this matter is dragging on too long, just to start a commission of inquiry, appointment of a chairman and the staff, and proper people to support the chairman,” he said.
“And that seems to have raised questions over the integrity of those senior staff to assist the chairman in the inquiry. There seems to be mishandling right from the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s Department downwards. This is a serious issue,” Mr Philemon said.
Explaining the 2005-2010 MTDS and its role on PNG efforts to fulfill the MDGs, he said: “MTDS is a strategy for the Government to move forward. But you can’t go forward unless you attend to the situation on the ground now.
“We have to understand where we are, what is happening on the ground now. You are talking about mismanaging of funds, you are talking about lack of capacity to manage those funds and so forth,” Mr Philemon said.
Nation Stories