Suspend provincial govt, group urges PM

National

By TONY PALME
MORE than 30 Jiwaka working committee members want the provincial government to be suspended because it is not running the province well.
The Jiwaka Transitional Authority members have asked Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to suspend the provincial government with a caretaker government to take over until next year’s election.
Spokesman Billy Kolip Moli,  referring to an internal memo from provincial treasurer to the office of the administrator to endorse payment of K106,000 for allowances, transport, meals and accommodation and contingency for the JTA members for the funeral of late Hela Governor Anderson Agiru claimed they did not receive the funds.
“None of us (11 JTA members) received this allowance of K5000 each or even the additional 19 JTA members benefited as stated in the memo,” Moli said when explaining the document.
“We went to Hela on our own expenses. We have never received any of these payments.
“The signature of the provincial administrator is not even there to endorse the claim.
“We ask the prime minister and his treasurer to tell us if Jiwaka got some money from the supplementary budget because we know that once any money gets in there (trust account), it is withdrawn the next day, freezing the account to zero.”
Moli said the founding fathers were not happy that the province had not progressed in the last five years as they had wanted.
“We have seen the trust accounts of the province. There is no money there. All the service providers in the province are not paid. They are still waiting and it’s taking months and years.
“Some public servants, who have been suspended by the provincial government, have not been reappointed and the 21 days suspension period as required by law has lapsed.
“The province is not running well as we had expected. It is run by a one-man show.
“People might think that these old people are playing politics. No. We are not playing politics. We are concerned about our province.”
Moli said he was speaking on behalf of JTA members like Philip Kapal, Roger Palme, John Munul, Simon Kaiwi, William Wii, Nicholas Kuman, Talu Aipe and others.
He said the caretaker government appointed must include the three electoral MPs of the province.