Districts get ‘funds’

ALL 89 districts have received K30 million each since 2015 in district services improvement programme  funds, Vice Minister for Inter-Government Relations Joe Sungi says.
According to records of funding distribution, districts received this amount and it depended on how individual MPs used it to serve their electorates and improve livelihoods, the Nuku MP said.
He said people should judge their political leaders by how the DSIP funding is used to ensure tangible benefits were delivered.  “It’s no longer a challenge of province against province in terms of services delivery, instead it’s district versus district to realise how much leaders are performing to deliver services to change their districts.”
Sungi said that at the launching of a new vessel in Lae on Wednesday.
He accompanied Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch and former police minister Sani Rambi to the launching of the mv Morobe Rainforest II which will serve the island and coastal communities of Morobe.
They were joined by former Huon Gulf MP Sasa Zibe and his successor Ross Seymour, Governor Kelly Naru, Lae Chamber of Commerce president Allan McLay, Morobe administrator Masayan Moat and other provincial dignitaries.
Sungi said the government was allocating funding directly into the districts.
He said despite the funding allocated, there was little or nothing happening in some districts.