Govt funding to provinces hailed

National Economics and Fiscal Commission (NEFC) chairman Hohora Suve has praised the Government for increasing GST funding to provinces.
Suve said since 2009 there has been an increase from K140 million to K578 million in 2016 to provinces.
He said NEFC emphasised that provinces should not rely on the Government but use its internal revenue to fund service delivery.
Suve told participants at a recent Southern region workshop in Port Moresby to apply the formula of service delivery as the outcome of national grant plus internal revenue.
“With the emergence of district development authorities, the Government is focusing on the districts and down to the LLG and wards, and frontline players in this game must step up and make a difference,” Suve said.
He told the workshop that NEFC was taking a new approach to assess provincial performances in health by linking expenditure to Vision 2050 to achieve outcomes.