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By GABRIEL FITO
MORE than 50 councillors from the 26 local level government (LLG) in
East Sepik province have petitioned to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare
to explain why no funds have been injected into the LLG purse for
development purposes in the last five years.
Cr Gabriel Mollok, who claimed to be speaking on behalf of more than 800
councillors, said under the new reform, funds for LLG were supposed to
be channelled straight from the National Government to their respective
district treasury but to date, the councillors had not received any
funds to implement projects in their respective wards.
The petition is also seeking an explanation from the East Sepik
provincial administration on why councillors have not been paid their
monthly allowances for the last seven months and other issues affecting
them.
According to the councillors, the East Sepik provincial administration
had promised to pay them K200 each month as stipulated under the
Salaries Remuneration Act when they petitioned the governor and the
administration over non-payment of monthly allowances last year but were
only paid K100 until January when payment ceased.
In a signed petition, which will also be presented to the Minister for
Inter-Government Relation Minister Job Pomat and East Sepik provincial
administrator John Alman, the councillors wanted to know why there had
been no proper quarterly meetings for full five years since 2003.
They said under the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government
Standing Orders, there should be quarterly meetings of the General
Council Assembly, which will allow ward councillors to meaningfully
address issues that affected development services in their respective
ward areas.
They believed that there was not enough technical staff to run the
management to bring about development services expected by wards
development planning under the five-year rolling plan of the reform
policy.
They wanted to know who owned the South Seas Tuna Loaning Cannery as
monies for LLGs were spent to purchase shares in the plant, and three
years now, there had been no dividends paid to the 26 LLGs even though a
dividend of K180,000 was paid out by the company last year.
Mr Mollok said they were awaiting a favourable response from Sir Michael
when he addresses the people of East Sepik on Sept 16 at the Prince
Charles Oval.
Attempts by The National to get comments from Mr Alman yesterday were
unsuccessful.
 
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