Bakani: Govt spending needs scrutiny, control

 By SHIRLEY MAULUDU

THE Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) has expressed concern over the government funding allocation to provinces and districts.

Governor for BPNG Loi Bakani said with a K10 million allocation to each district and government’s policy to provide free education free health services ,improve law and order and infrastructure development, it had to ensure that the large amounts that had been allocated were used efficiently and under close scrutiny and control. 

Speaking during the PNG investment summit in Port Moresby on Monday, Bakani said the government had to plan in great detail the pace of implementation because the decisions that it took were wide ranging, complex and costly. 

“The government is aware that its 2013 expenditure plan could be funded from domestic financial resources. 

“This will result in all of it, excluding some minor import components of fuel, spare parts and some planning will be accounted for as contribution to domestic GDP. 

“If things would materialise as planned, then gross domestic growth would be substantially higher from 5.2% as projected and closer to the five-year average growth of 9%”, he said. 

Bakani recommended that funding resources should be released only after all plans and safe guards were in place.

“If the plans were not closely monitored and planned for, we might repeat the misallocations and misuse of funds of the recent years from the public funds,” he said.