ABG House to consider supplementary budget

By STEPHANIE ELIZAH
MEMBERS of the Bougainville House of Representatives meets on Friday to consider a supplementary appropriation bill on the expenditure of the K15 million restoration and development grant received last week.
Bougainville executive council meets on Thursday to review the supplementary budget before it is tabled in the ABG parliament by finance minister Albert Punghau.
Punghau confirmed that the money had been allocated according to the Autonomous Bougainville Government budget process.
The process involves regional committees of the North, Central and South Bougainville determining the priorities for their region.
“We have done a preliminary break-up of K3 million each to Central and South Bougainville and K4 million to North Bougainville.
“The remaining K5 million will be for administration overhead costs,” Punghau said.
He said in terms of projects, health, education, infrastructure and feeder roads were the main priorities identified by the regional committees.
Punghau said the ABG would need to find a savings of K5 million in the grant to settle outstanding debts.
“We will need to find this much money to settle outstanding ABG debts like the payment of entitlements for members of the Bougainville People’s Congress and constituency support grants from some members,” he said.