K1.15bil for law, justice

THE law and justice sector has been allocated K1.15 billion in Budget 2023 that was presented in Parliament yesterday.
Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey said that the sector had received an increase of K150 million compared to last year’s allocation, where it was allocated K1 billion.
Police received the biggest cut in the sector’s allocation with K547 million.
Police Commissioner David Manning could not be reached for comment but his office said he would make an official statement after the budget was debated and passed.
Treasurer Ling-Stuckey said in his budget speech that he was delighted to see advertisements in the newspapers for a further 500 recruits and 60 extra officer positions.
“We have committed ongoing funding to the police, to continue this level of recruitment. And we will lift the size of the police force from 5,000 this year to over 7,000 by 2026,” he said.
The Papua New Guinea Defence Force received the second largest allocation with K348.5 million and the Judiciary received the third largest cut in the sector’s allocation with K272 million.
Ling-Stuckey said that the Government was delivering a 50 per cent increase in funding for the judiciary, from K154 million last year to K272 million in 2023, before a further increase to K310 million in 2024.
The Department of Justice and Attorney-General was allocated K228 million and the Correctional Services (CS) was allocated K174 million.
CS commissioner Stephen Pokanis said he was pleased with the allocation.
The Magisterial Services received K91 million, the Ombudsman Commission was allocated K32 million, the Office of the Public Prosecutor K18 million, the National Intelligence Office was allocated K17 million and the Office of the Public Solicitor was allocated K16 million.
The Legal Training Institute and the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission got K13 million each.
However, the much talked about Independent Commission Aagainst Corruption received an allocation of only K10 million.

CS grateful for K20mil increase

CORRECTIONAL Services (CS) commissioner Stephen Pokanis has thanked the government for putting more budget support to the law and justice sector.
Pokanis said he was pleased to see a K20 million increase in the 2023 Budget for CS.
“I humbly thank our Government for increasing the CS budget by almost K20 million. Amidst the tough economic times, such an increase is massive,” he said.
“It is a budget of responsibility, of strong and wise decisions. This is a budget of innovation and creativity where wisdom guides my team and I to spend wisely, and according to where critical needs require.”
Pokanis said supporting targeted projects, ongoing maintenance work on infrastructures, improving and expanding on rehabilitation initiatives for prisoners and training as priorities in 2023 and beyond.
Meanwhile, the priority items in the law and justice sector which received the fifth largest slice in the 2023 Budget with K1.15 billion includes, K389 million for Police, K38 million for Defence catering and K23 million to cover fuel cost for police.
Other priorities include K10 million for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and K18 million for lawyer pay increments.