Bilong: No sign of funds for Lae roads

 ACTING Morobe administrator Geoving Bilong says he has not seen any sign of the K100 million that was said to have been allocated by Works Department for Lae roads this year.

He was commenting on the war of words between Works Minister Francis Awesa and Morobe Governor Kelly Naru on the funds for Lae roads.

Awesa claims K100 million for Lae road works in the 2013 budget is in a trust account in Lae, with the Morobe administrator and Lae works manager being trustees, a claim that has been vehemently denied by Naru.

Bilong confirmed that he was a member of the Lae road works committee but had not seen any trust account as claimed by Awesa.

He said since the government started allocating funds for Lae roads, the Morobe government and the administration had no input, until that was changed by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill last year.

The problem was that the monies were coordinated by remote control from Port Moresby, Bilong said.

“The province has had no input until the Prime Minister came over last year and made a commitment that there will be a committee overseeing the Lae roads,” he said.

“The national government says it has made available K100 million but we need to find out where it is.

“The Governor (Naru) says he wants to know where the money is.

“That’s the question that the Works Department must answer.”