Abel commits to reigniting government planning process

 By ABIGAIL APINA 

MINISTER for National Planning Charles Abel has committed himself to reignite the whole process of government planning.

He said in Kokopo yesterday at the opening of the Islands region Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council forum that the process has stagnated adding there is no political will to “drive behind it.”

Abel said that has changed since the new government has come into place and since he took up the Ministry.

He told participants of the forum that their input during the forum was vital in the process of reigniting the whole government planning.

Abel who is also the Council Chairman for CIMC said he was keen on ensuring that the whole government planning was functioning well.

According to Abel, there was no council meeting in the last four years until last year when he chaired the first council meeting.

He said the department contribute K1 million to the budget this year in partnership with AusAid to CIMC.

“I have committed to making sure that the ideas that have come out and will come out from the forums are taken to cabinet,” he said.

He added that he will make efforts to ensure that these ideas are incorporated into the planning processes leading to the formulation of the budget.

Abel said these regional forums are compressed in the first six months of the year to be able to coincide with the budgetary 

cycle.

“I want to ensure that your ideas are considered. We cannot do much about the past except to take it cabinet anyway. I will bring forward critical points that came out in past meetings and forums. 

However I will ensure that whatever you say now will be considered now,” he said. 

He urged participants to treat the forum as very important and “not as a matter of just repeating ourselves in some meaningless cycle”.