No request from police: MP

National

MORESBY North East MP Labi Amaiu says his office has not received any formal request from NCD police for funding assistance.
He was responding to NCD Metropolitan Supt Benjamin Turi who said recently that he had not seen any DSIP funding  this year from the office of the three MPs – Justin Tkatchenko (Moresby South), Labi Amaiu (North- East) and Michael Malabag (Moresby North-
West) – for policing under the law and justice sector.
Amaiu said for the last four years, they had budgeted fairly for the law and justice sector.
He said they had assisted a number of projects for the PNGDF, Correctional Services and even RPNGC over the years.
But this year, there was no allocation due to the budget constraints that was experienced by the government,” he explained. He added that for his electorate, they were only given K4 million in DSIP funding.
“For a big electorate like Moresby North- East, I cannot just go around making commitments and promising people on projects and requests.”
He said given the big electorate, his office had to consider some of the more important factors to cater for long term needs.
“So that is why, with whatever money available throughout this year, we were able to fund impact projects such as water and sanitation, power supply, upgrading feeder roads, supporting small and medium sised enterprise programmes within our communities and supporting associations like women’s groups, youths and others.”
Amaiu said by improving basic services for people in the communities also contributed to reducing law and order issues within respective wards.
“If we give security to our people by providing basic services and empowering them with necessities like water, power and others, law and order issues will also be controlled,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amaiu said for them as the local MPS, they depended entirely on the DSIP funds they received.