Support grants but with conditions

By FRANK RAI
PROVINCIAL and district administrators in the Momase region say district support grants seem to have strings attached, restricting them from delivering services to priority areas.
But the Department of National Planning said the K4million district support grant approved by the National Government under its 2007 supplementary budget was to be strictly used under guidelines set by the National Government.
Provincial administrators, provincial treasurers, districts administrators and district treasurers last week attended a regional workshop in Madang on management of district funds were organised by the Office of Rural Development.
They said they wanted the guidelines changed or relaxed.
Amongst those who raised the concern was Menyamya district administrator Buds Bodikie who said: “The funds were tied to the guidelines and this would not address the needs of the district.
“This is because some districts have their own priority areas which are not similar to other districts and these districts would be affected.”
Mr Bodikie said that since districts in the Momase region had their own priority areas to deliver services, the funds would not be used for worthwhile services to meet the demanding needs of the districts.
“We are worried with the K4million because there is a string attached to the funds and this would handicap vital service deliveries,” he said.
He said Menyamya had its own priority area like the Menyamya road but the K4million had already been divided into other areas which were not important.
It is understood that the K4million had been divided up as follows: K1million for District water supply, K1million for district education services, K1million for district health services and K1million for district law and order programmes.
Mr Bodikie said the guideline had no allocation break-up for the road improvements which means districts like Menyamya would still have no road network.
“We are arguing from experience because we know that the money would not cater for district road improvement programmes (DRIP), consultation cost, feasibility studies on projects and technical expertise,” he said.
“The Government should have left the money to the districts for them to do their own break-ups targeting their own priority areas,” he said.
Mr Bodikie also said the government should have a standardised reporting format for the district administrations to report on their work, adding that each districts were currently using their own formats and this was creating problems for further fundings.
He said administrators attending the Momase workshop had raised these issues so that officers from the Rural Development department who were facilitating the workshop would advise the government for a review on the guidelines.