Focus on education, roads

Yangoru-Saussia spends a large portion of its budget annually on education and roads, MP Richard Maru says.
Maru, who is also chairman of the Yangoru-Saussia development authority (DDA), and chief executive officer Jacob Yafai submitted the district’s acquittal reports for the past three years to Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD) secretary Aihi Vaki in Port Moresby on Friday.
Vaki urged all 89 district administrations in the country to submit reports on time.
He reminded them to stick within the K300,000 range as their administrative component and not to go over.
“In terms of compliance, it’s not the leaders (local MPs),” he said.
“I’d like to call on district administrations to make sure these reports come in.
“We will use it as our monitoring tool to go down and see what is happening physically and we want to see impact projects.”
Maru explained that the delay in the submission of reports for 2017, 2018 and 2019 was due to changes in administration.
Vaki also commended the district for its rural development initiatives and for setting the benchmark for rural transformation, even with limited funds and reductions in district services improvement programme (DSIP) funding.
Maru thanked Yafai and district administration staff for getting the accounts up to date and completing all the outstanding acquittal reports.
“Good governance, transparency and accountability are key pillars of our work in Yangoru-Saussia,” he said.
“The people should have trust in their government and see the evidence of DSIP in tangible development projects that we implement in the district,” he said. Yafai said: “For Yangoru-Saussia, all funds we get is expensed according to the provisions of the District Development Authority Act 2014 and the Public Finance Management Act.
“They are specifically tied down to projects in the district.
“In Yangoru-Saussia, you can trace every DSIP fund to actual projects on the ground because we have financial management.”
Maru assured Vaki that the DIRD would receive the district’s 2020 acquittals before the March 31, 2021, deadline.
He said it was a key performance indicator the DDA board would hold the CEO accountable for.
“Our late submissions are only for two years (2017 and 2018),” he said.
“I appeal to my people not to believe the unrelenting media propaganda by a few people with political interests who have been spreading rumours on social media that our DDA has eight years of outstanding acquittals.”
Maru asked the department to visit the district and audit projects delivered and currently in progress as reported and acquitted.
“DIRD’s checks and verifications are important for us as we aspire to be a model district,” he said.
“We want to have the respect of the department, the national and provincial governments, donor agencies, development partners and our citizens.”