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Old foes join hands to rebuild Lae city

By PETER KORUGL
LAE MP and Deputy Opposition leader Bart Philemon and Morobe Governor Luther Wenge yesterday made peace, heralding in a new era for Lae, Papua New Guinea’s industrial hub.
Mr Philemon, serving an unprecedented fourth term in Parliament, and Mr Wenge serving his third term as Governor, shook hands and vowed to rebuild Lae city which they agreed was falling to pieces.
The reconciliation ended a political rivalry between the two men that many observers said ran for 10 years and spilled over during the 2007 National Elections.
Their critics blamed the problems in Lae on their sour relationship and had urged them to make peace for the good of Lae and Morobe.
The two leaders were sworn-in as chairman and deputy chairman of the Lae district planning and budget priority committee (LDPBPC), the body that oversees the development of the Lae Open electorate.
The committee sat for its first meeting for this year and dealt with many pressing matters.
Some of the issues that were mentioned for the committee to attend included the city roads, law and order, migration, Angau Memorial Hospital, HIV/AIDS, Bumbu River, governance of Lae city and the redevelopment of the Lae port.
LDPBPC was informed that governance of Lae city was the main reason why funding for the city was never good, thus affecting the maintenance of services and infrastructure.
A submission is already before the National Government to give the Lae city local level government a city commission status, similar to the National Capital District Commission.
This will pave the way for Lae to get enough money to maintain roads and other services in the city, lord mayor James Khay said.
Mr Philemon said in 1999 a study was conducted and it found that it would cost K16 million each year to maintain the roads.
“Today it may have gone up to K20 million. We need to completely rebuild the roads and then maintain them every year,” Mr Philemon said.
He, however, warned that plans and programmes for Lae city could be derailed if the National Government did not distribute resources properly.


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