Government allocates K100 million to region

THE Government has allocated K100 million to the Autonomous Bougainville Government under the 2020 National Budget.
Department of National Planning and Monitoring secretary Koney Samuel said this allocation followed Prime Minister James Marape’s recent visit to the Autonomous Region of Bougainville where he made a commitment to support ABG.
When making a presentation on the 2020 capital investment programme, Samuel noted that the support for ABG was under the administration sector. Under this particular sector, Samuel said: “It’s on building the institutional capacities of Government to ensure that it is effectively delivering services to PNG citizens.”
Other areas under the sector included K14 million for strengthening border security infrastructure, K10 million for strengthening public financial management systems, K22 million for supporting Treasury rollout programme at the sub-national level, K9 million for improving Customs facilities and strengthening systems, K100 million for maintaining the Government’s commitment to IDGs and K100 million for next year’s national census.
Other key ticket items which Samuel highlighted included K20 million for the national ID card project and K20 million for district towns improvement.
Meanwhile, making reference to the 2019 capital investment budget implementation challenges, Samuel said this year had been a difficult year to maintain expenditure on capital investment budget at the appropriation level.