Districts welcome data collection

ALL 89 districts in the country will soon have databases to plan and spend public money. 
This followed the successful collection of databases called District Information Management System (DIMS) throughout the districts, an initiative undertaken by the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD), which is funded by the European Union (EU) under component four of the support for districts and local level government (SDLLG) programme.
DIRD had so far covered Eastern Highlands, Morobe, Madang, West New Britain and East New Britain provinces.
Officers from DIRD last week covered all six districts in Chimbu, with public servants in the province commending DIRD.   
“This kind of data collection projects should have started a long time ago since the introduction of DSIP programme in 2007,” they said.
Most people interviewed understood the value of data collection. 
They said the DIMS project would greatly help them in their projects planning, selecting and designing to ensure delivery of goods and services reached them rural areas.
During the fact finding survey in Chimbu, DIRD officers received a rousing welcome from the district administrators, sector managers and people in rural areas.
“We are very elated to see public servants from Waigani coming here to work in rural places in an endeavour to assist develop our remote areas,” they said.
Deputy Secretary for DIRD Kelley Lovuru said the district services improvement programme – district information management systems (DSIP/DIMS) database collection was not an audit exercise.
“This data will assist the district and provincial administrations in their planning,” Lovuru said.
The DIMS is a yearly updatable mechanism for collecting, consolidating and analysing basic social, economic and other development projects in all districts of PNG.
Data collected now would be updated annually and made available to decision makers to decide on the types and priority of projects that are to be funded in the government budget.
The collection of data will continue next week in Western Highlands, Enga and Southern Highlands until Dec 6, followed by rest of the districts in December.