Health budget in air

TREASURY Minister Ian Ling-Stuckey says the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s K320 million in budget support for Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s health sector that is due in November is in limbo.
“This is solely due to (Peter) O’Neill regime’s record of economic mismanagement. The regime’s so-called free healthcare policy and massive cuts to the health sector since 2015 are now threatening a delay in the release of the ADB funds for a cheap yet well-designed health policy reform assistance.
“This is just another part of the disgraceful mess left by the O’Neill regime that we are discovering in our due diligence check of his cooked books,” Ling-Stuckey said in a statement yesterday.
He said on almost all health indicators, PNG ranked in the bottom few of the 43 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“This must be turned around. The ADB has been an extremely valuable partner for PNG. It has been supporting development in our country even before our Independence.
“It has taken on difficult tasks that others feared. It has stuck with us through good times and bad. 2019 was the second year of a major programme of health sector reform totalling just over K1 billion from 2018 to 2020.
“This was a policy-based loan. PNG gets budget support if it meets certain health and budget reform conditions. All required health reforms had been undertaken.
“However, the extraordinary economic mismanagement of the O’Neill regime means we have not met the required standards for budget policy,” he added.
Ling-Stuckey said there was a very important meeting last Thursday between senior visiting ADB staff and the Prime Minister, National Planning and Monitoring Minister and State Enterprises Minister.
“We need to expose the truth and propose sensible solutions. This includes actions in a planned Supplementary Budget so that PNG starts to live within its means again.
“We will continue to work closely with the ADB to restore confidence and build on the ADB’s valuable work in PNG. We have, thus, discussed options for ADB’s support for State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
“(State Enterprises) Minister (Sasindran) Muthuvel has been leading these negotiations and is building a good reform agenda for our SOEs to deliver better services and to provide some of the key enablers of growth, such as reliable power supplies and cheaper, faster communication systems,” he added.
In an immediate response, O’Neill claims Ling-Stuckey is playing politics with the economy and attacking his former Government’s eight years of policies and programmes that current premier, James Marape, was a member.
He said: “What he (Ling-Stuckey) has to appreciate is that the policies of the O’Neill Government are the same policies as the Marape Government.
“Marape was then the Finance Minister with Patrick Pruaitch as Treasurer. They evolved with my Government after the 2012 General Election.
“Our record has seen continuous and uninterrupted growth despite challenging conditions. This has been observed and commended by many international organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
“Our credit ratings had been stable and economic fundamentals were solid and sound.
“That is our record and we are proud of that,” he added.
“Members of Parliament know that the O’Neill Government, with James Marape, delivered the most sensible approach to economic development and overcoming the challenges we face in the domestic and international economy.
“We all know that the new Treasurer brings with him a huge questionable experience of managing New Ireland Province that sadly led to bankruptcy when he was Governor through his famous Lemus Structure.
“If the Treasurer thinks that what he calls the O’Neill solutions are not working, then now is his time to offer credible alternatives, not just issue press statements.
“Managing the government of the nation is as complex as it is common sense, and the Treasurer needs to draw on both if he is to do his job properly.
“Name calling is below the high office of the Treasurer, so for the good of this nation I hope he can focus on the future,” he added.