Previous MPs yet to hand in acquittals, official says

SOME members of the previous parliament are yet to provide acquittals of the public funds they have spent, a senior public servant says.
Department of Implementation and Rural Development acting secretary Aihi Vaki yesterday said the MPs were paid their provincial and district service improvement programme funds before providing acquittal reports.
He said he would submit a list of the MPs to Finance Minister James Marape.
Vaki and department staff yesterday welcomed Marape to the department in Waigani. Vakiu said there was inadequate capacity at the district level to manage large amounts of public funds allocated to the districts.
“We know that the Government was giving big money to the districts but the capacity of the districts was not enough to cater for them,” Vaki said.
“And it in our interest to conduct a survey to assess whether they have the capacity to get these funds.
“We need to build the capacity of the districts to implement the public funds allocated to them successfully.
“This is the biggest problem on the ground.”
Vaki said there were only 96 staff and no operation and monitoring funds for the officers to go out and monitor the projects.
“In terms of monitoring and compliances over the years 2013 to 2016, we have seen a decline in submitting of acquittals,” he said.
“This is a concern to the department.
“We have tried all our best to get acquittal reports to come in.
“But most of the time we are not receiving reports.”
Vaki said they would treat the 111 MPs equally.