Boito: Where’s the money?

OBURA-Wonenara MP and Eastern Highlands deputy Governor John Boito is crying foul over allegations of misuse of K6 million in rehabilitation of education sector infrastructure (RESI) funds for high schools in his electorate.
Several attempts in the past four months to collect the cheques for the funds had been futile as “the cheques have gone missing”, Mr Boito said yesterday.
He highlighted that the school governing council and Central Tenders Supply Board were also unaware of the missing cheques which he indicated had been approved last year when the planning minister was in Goroka.
The two cheques were written out for Tarara High School (K2 million) and Aiyura National High School (K4 million).
Mr Boito said a contractor based in Port Moresby was issued a cheque without following proper tender procedures.
“Where are the rest of the money and how it was given with no proper tender?”
He said Papua New Guineans had the right to know where the money had gone, calling on appropriate bodies, including the fraud squad, Ombudsmen Commission and Transparency International PNG to investigate the matter.
Yesterday in a press conference at Parliament House, Mr Boito said Aiyura National High School students had called him earlier to inform him of an unrest they were to conduct when he directed them to refrain from it.
He said students were frustrated over their current boarding situation where they were being accommodated in classrooms.
Mr Boito added that although he was pleased with the Somare-Temu Government about the RESI programme that had been initiated, he wanted to know “where and how the funds were being executed”.
Telefomin MP Peter Iwei, who was also present, said he faced similar problems in securing the RESI funds approved since 2007.