Govt shifts focus

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Wednesday 5th June 2013

 THE Government will continue to allocate direct funding to districts, local level governments and wards, Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion said.

Dion, the regional member for East New Britain, said although PNG was a developing nation with limited financial resources, the Government wanted funding to reach institutions providing services where the majority of the people were.

“Of course there is not much money in this country. We are a developing country, we have our problems but of course there is a political will now to iron out those problems,” he said in a statement.

“The aim of this government is to make sure that appropriate funding goes down to the districts, down to the local level governments and down to the wards.” 

Dion said the allocation of funding directly to local level governments had been welcomed. 

“It has never been done before. It has been done in 2013 and I believe that we will continue to do that in the 2014 budget,” he said.

Dion said it was up to the provincial governments, local level governments and joint district planning and budget priority committees to make sure the funds were accounted for properly.

“Are the machinery of provincial administrations geared towards ensuring that those programmes are implemented through established and transparent the processes?” he said.