ENB slams oversight

EAST New Britain Governor Leo Dion has expressed frustration and dissatisfaction over the national government’s approach in disbursing appropriate development funding to New Guinea Islands provinces.
Dion said this during a Department of National Planning workshop last week where he said his government had closely monitored the manner in which the national government, in particular the Department of National Planning, had been leaving out the provincial governments and dealing directly with  ministers or members and private individuals, with funding going directly to their projects.
This, he said was an abuse of the funding process.
Dion said; “The provincial government, by law and constitution, is the second-tier of the government and, thus, like the national government should be respected at all times when dealing with funding and the development process.”
He said this had not been happening and portrayed a negative image.
Dion said ENB had come a long way in its planning and development approach.
He said the province had operated on a system that had ensured efficiency and effectiveness in the way it delivered government services over the years.
He also said the province had begun to shift its focus of development to the most rural and disadvantaged areas.
Dion said this was a situation that would not have been undertaken 20 or 30 years ago.
He said for development to be appropriate, it had to be driven by the people based on  people’s empowerment, as a prerequisite to self-reliance and self-sustenance.