K155m budget for Fly govt

THE Fly River provincial government has passed a budget of K155 million for this year, Governor Dr Bob Danaya has announced.
The National Government grant is K58.7 million which will be for recurrent expenditure.
The bulk of this, or about K34 million, goes to personnel management including salaries of public servants and teachers.
A Government grant of K6 million covers health, education, village courts, local level governments, agriculture, transport and maintenance.
The special support grant to the province was K16 million which should support impact projects like roads and waterways, Dr Danaya said.
He added that from taxes and other charges, the provincial government expects to generate about K4 million, most of which would come from VAT.
Mining royalties from OK Tedi mine will make up the biggest (internal) revenue of K24 million.
Other miscellaneous charges and benefits make up the balance.
Dr Danaya said the emphasis for this year’s budget was support for growth and service centres, infrastructure upgrading, economic advancement, socio-human advancement
and good governance
with the main theme
being implementation of key programmes.
He said the budget aimed to create wealth and ensure equitable distribution, promote cottage industries and revenue generation through sustainable investments.
“The new plan now is to tie funds to rural areas with strict controls centrally so that public servants will be obliged to visit rural areas and identify economic projects and support implementation and report regularly,” Dr Danaya said in a statement.
“This would minimise wastage and stop officers travelling unnecessarily to urban areas which has been the experience in the past. The only approval for travel would be to rural areas from next year onwards. This is the strong message to the civil servants who will be implementing the budget.”
He said the local level government’s capacity to develop economic growth centres would be improved and strengthened as this was where the bulk of the people lived.
Dr Danaya, who is the chairman for Finance and Planning, said this was a big budget for the province and positive results must be achieved.