Increase in fish grants

 By ADAM MERA

GRANTS to its provincial officers will increase by K13.5 million, National Fisheries Authority chief executive John Edward Kasu announced on Wednesday.

He said the increase would mean that the provincial grants for this year would be K45 million.

Kasu made the announcement a while opening the NFA’s Heads of Provincial Fisheries Conference  in Port Moresby.

He said this year’s funding was for ongoing and new projects that were identified in last year’s conference under five areas, including  institutional capacity-building, infrastructure, aquaculture and investment.

He said this year’s funds would be managed by the NFA and provinces could draw that funds as follows:

l10% of each province’s project funding would be made available for provinces to access to meet operational or administration expenses;

lthere will be no depositing of money into respective provincial fisheries accounts as projects would be funded directly from the NFA; and

lProjects funded last year but requiring further support must detailed, compiled and submitted to NFA before securing support.

“All projects that were funded in 2013 must be completed or reach near completion and proper audits done before new projects are funded,” Kasu said.

“During the next three days, all department heads of provincial fisheries will be required to present project status reports and financial reports which you have implemented under the key thematic areas.”

The conference is a three-day meeting pertaining to the NFA fisheries 2013 provincial grant funding of K35.1 million for the development of the industry.