Chairman explains role of reform

NATIONAL Economic and Fiscal Commission chairman and chief executive officer Hohora Susuve explained the role of reform on inter-governmental financing agreements (RIGFA) and provincial expenditure review during a workshop in Kokopo last week.
Suve told the participants that RIGFA had increased funding to medium and lower funded provinces.
He said the fiscal capacity on average for the six lowest funded provinces was 30 per cent in 2008 but the following year increased to 45 per cent.
Suva also said RIGFA had ensured that almost all provinces now had the fiscal capacity to be able to provide basic services based on the cost of services.
“Total amount of function grants allocated to provinces and local level governments (LLG) amounted to close to K4billion between 2009 and 2018,” he said.
Suve added that function and LLG grants increased from K177million in 2009 included function grants of K134million and progressively increasing to K565million in 2019.
He also explained that the fall in revenue depicted in 2015 was primarily related to the temporary closure of the Ok Tedi gold mine operations.
He said there was a need for provinces to improve their revenue base.
“There is a need for provinces to improve their revenue base and to collect more revenue to be able to provide public services to their community,” Suve said.