Morobe owes service providers K44mil, says Basil

National

By JUNIOR UKAHA
HE Morobe government is “in the red” because it owes service providers K44 million, says Pangu Pati leader Sam Basil.
Basil said the new government under Pangu Pati candidate Ginson Saonu will have a difficult time trying to settle the debt left by the previous government.
“As I speak right now, the MPG (Morobe government owes K44million (to service providers),” Basil said.
“The new governor upon taking office will strategise a way forward on how to repay the K44million.
“We will make sure that he (Saonu) holds the previous governor Kelly Naru responsible for how he (Naru) allowed his provincial executive council to run a bill of K44million that is now burdening the new administration.
“We won’t allow the administration to find money to pay for the previous governor’s mistakes.
“We have to find out how these debts were accrued.
“We will dig into it and carefully check all the invoices to make sure that they came in the right way.” asil said.
“We cannot allow the new government of Morobe to operate on K44million red.
“We will ensure that the previous government is held responsible for this burden.”
Basil said the financial books of the provincial government, Tewai-Siassi, Finschhafen, Menyamya, Markham, Nawaeb and Kabwum will also be audited.”
Basil said these audits would not be conducted by the provincial administration audit team but by some independent auditors from outside.
“The auditors will see to it that the people’s money will not go to wantok business and family companies where they cash out,” Basil said.
Basil said another thing they would investigate is how the province was using its grants.
He said at the moment provincial governments did not have sufficient funds because all the money was diverted to the districts as District Services Improvement Programme funding by the national government.