Budget will be reviewed monthly, says O’Neill

THE government will make sure that the budget is reviewed every month starting next year to evaluate the outcomes.
Minister for Finance and Treasury Peter O’Neill said when answering questions raised by National Research Institute director Dr Thomas Webster yesterday.
Webster said that although the budget looked promising, with focus in improving people’s lives, he was concerned about how effectively and successfully it would be implemented as past experiences had indicated that half of the budget allocation was never successfully implemented.
However, O’Neill said that unlike in the past where the budget was review every six month, the government would make sure that the review was done every month so that it was successfully implemented.
Webster described it as an impressive budget which was targeted towards several key priority programmes in the medium term development plan enablers like education, health, law and order and transport.
He said the budget was more focused on improving the lives of the people which was good but the sad side of it was how to implement it successfully and transparently.
University of PNG head of economics Dr Peter Ga’Allah Kora said the government should be commended for coming up with a good budget framework.
He said it was a real development budget but failed to address the working class of people as there was no tax cuts included in the budget.
Kora said with the expected economic growth of 8.2%, the working class, especially the low income earners, should be allowed to have enough money in their pockets to counter increases in cost of goods and services.
However, he shared the same view on the effective and transparent implementation of the budget’s priority sectors.