Govt repays project funds

 MORE than K600,000 has been refunded by the Government to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) for project funds that were not accounted for from 2004 to 2006.

Secretary-General for PNG National Commission for Unesco Yori Yei told a news conference yesterday that a cheque for K643,000 would be sent to them next week.

Under Unesco’s participation programme for member countries, funds are released biennially for projects that fall in line with its specialty fields.

At the end of 2006 however, requirements for acquittals were not met and funding was subsequently cut, which excluded PNG from this extremely useful project.

Yei said Unesco was a key partner to the government supporting its capacity building programmes for almost 30 years.

“I thank the O’Neill Government for seeing the importance of this programme and this reimbursement will clear and pave the way for more development assistance,” he said.

“We have missed out on 8 years’ worth of funding and many projects that have been dormant will soon be reactivated thanks to our government.”

He added that Unesco’s PNG office was looking forward to continuing the participation programme, which aimed at ensure direct funding for its projects.

Yori said that proposals would be submitted to the PNG office for screening before restarting the programme in February, 2014.