Delivery costs vary: Official

THE cost of delivering basic services to local level governments, districts and wards varies across the country, an administrator says.
Manus administrator Smith Sapok told of the high cost of sending medical supplies to the remote islands.
“It costs K10,000 to deliver 10 boxes of medicines to the isolated and remote islands in the province,” he said.
“The mobilisation cost is almost 40 per cent of the funding and moving things is a very expensive exercise.
“It is very expensive in Manus because the cost of delivery is high because of the distance, from Manus to mainland like Lae.”
Sapok said many projects were not implemented because funding was not available on time.
“So the situation in each province is not the same,” he said.
He said this year, education was the priority and though K10mil was allocated, they did not receive the full amount.