ENB approves K328m budget for next year

The National Main Stories

THE East New Britain has approved a budget of K328 million for 2019 – an increase of 21 per cent compared to last year’s budget of K233 million.
The budget was tabled by Governor Nakikus Konga, pictured, at the provincial assembly meeting attended by local-level government presidents.
Konga described it as a “budget tailored for the people”.
“It is founded on the needs and aspirations of our people, and reflected on its formulation process from the wards, local-level government, districts, and provincial level,” he said.
“The 2019 budget is geared toward the revitalisation and consolidation of a service delivery model made workable by ENB and is the envy of many provinces”.
Konga said the budget was driven by the need to address gaps from previous budgets including responding to the changing provincial landscape, informed by various data sources that have enabled the drafting of the Provincial Fiscal Policy and Budget Framework.
“This budget highly demonstrates the provincial shift away from service delivery towards economic empowerment of our people and rests largely on supporting districts and LLGs, the institutions closer to the people,” he said.
The breakdown is:

  • Governance K36.1mil;
  • health K18.1mil;
  • economic development K22.1mil;
  • education K19.2mil;
  • infrastructure K116.3mil;
  • social Services K5.3mil;
  • and mobilisation K5.2mil;
  • HIV/AIDS K360,700; and,
  • Disaster reduction K1, 953, 500.

“The success of this budget will depend on how effective the implementation machinery steps up to the challenge of managing the process using the resources available,” Konga
said.
“The success of the budget will also depend on the support of our key allies and partners including development partners, private sector, faith-based organisations and civil society.”