East New Britain district takes DSIP issue to court

 A DISTRICT in East New Britain plans to apply to the court this week for an interim injunction to stop the Government from paying out any District Services Improvement Programme payment to any parliamentarian.

The Rabaul district has instructed its lawyers to file this because it is one of the few districts in the country that is still awaiting the full payment of their DSIP funds from last year.

Most of the districts are represented in Parliament by Opposition MPs.

Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat told a meeting last week that lawyers had been instructed to apply for an interim junction.

Marat said they wanted to stop the payment of any 2014 DSIP Funds until all Opposition members were paid the outstanding DSIP funds from last year.

He said they would be asking the court to order that Opposition MPs were paid their 2014 DSIP funds before any other MP.

Marat said Rabaul received K3 million in a staggered manner last year. 

He said that only happened after the district instituted legal proceedings at the end of last year. The district was paid another K3 million for 2013.

Marat said he was not sure where the K3 million was sourced from as it was wired to the provincial treasury instead of to the district treasury.