Districts to get 50% of grants by month’s end

 FINANCE Minister James Marape has assured Parliament that provinces and districts should receive 50% of their grants this month.

He said they have so far received 40% of their provincial support improvement programme (PSIP) and district support improvement programme (DSIP) funds and would receive another 10% this month.

Marape said by the end of the year, each MP should receive 100% or K10 million for the districts and provinces should also get their full funding.

He said the Government could not provide the funds all at once as they needed to control cash flow. 

He added that he would ensure that the cash components were received for those provinces that had received their warrants.

The minister was responding to Chimbu Governor Noah Kool who had queried delays in funding for his province and districts.

“We do not have capacity to frontload. It’s a management issue and we have to manage the PSIP and DSIP and other operational funds as we depend on the cash flow,” he said.

Marape said that he and Treasurer Don Polye were managing the cash flow with about K2 billion deficit in the national budget this year.