Districts to access K10mil through impact projects

By HARLYNE JOKU
A joint communique was signed by key stakeholder partners of government agencies in Kupiano, Central province, last Friday which will ensure that the Abau and 88 other districts in PNG will benefit from impact projects recommended by the district of the K10 million promised by the Government in its 2008 Budget.
The Kupiano communique resulted from a week-long meeting held by officers of the Prime Minister’s Department, the Central provincial government and Abau district officers.
The communique and the experience in Abau will be used as a model for the other districts.
The 30-plus officers who met, discussed impediments in service delivery at the district level.
They further identified problem areas and where the K10 million could be spent on.
Programme coordinator from the public sector reform unit of the Department of the Prime Minister Joe Sukwianomb, who is satisfied with the outcome of the workshop, said recommendations would be drawn from the findings which will be submitted to the National Planning Committee through the central agencies coordinating committee for approval.
One of the recommendations is for a guideline or criteria be set for the disbursement of the K10 million for genuine impact projects.
A proposed guideline has been drawn up by the Office of Rural Development (ORD) which needs certification from the Finance Department.
According to the ORD proposal, the district managers need to have a five-year plan highlighting funding priorities which must be approved by the Joint Development Planning and Budget Priority Committee meeting before it goes to ORD for approval and the Department of Finance for financing.
Officers and the communities who participated in the programme gave honest views that there was hardly evidence of the millions of kina promised by their politicians on impact projects in the past years through their discretionary and non discretionary funds.
The people expressed that they were excited about the K10 million and pleaded that the money be spent on projects that could better their livelihood and welfare especially in remote rural settings.
Most were concerned in long delays in regular health and education services.
In the area of health, the communique revealed that Central province ranked the lowest in health with a gross run-down of health services, lack of staff training, transport and non-availability of hospital services in the province.
In the area of education, the issues were of insufficiently trained pool of teachers in the districts with the inability to contain them at the place of work.