K211mil Eastern Highlands money plan puts people first, says Numu

The National National

THE K211 million Eastern Highlands provincial budget is the budget of the people, Governor Peter Numu says.
He said this after trying unsuccessfully to present his provincial budget to Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel on Tuesday and Thursday last week.
Numu said that while he failed to present the budget, his officers from the provincial administration managed to present it to the deputy secretary for Treasury late on Thursday.
He said his provincial integrated development plan of 2018-2022 was a long-term plan with the theme of growing Eastern Highlands to be a “healthy, wealth and prosperous province”.
Numu said he worked with the provincial budget committee to put together a money plan promoting economic sustainability and prosperity.
“It is a people’s budget, not a bureaucracy budget as has been the case before,” he said.
Numu said his budget captures the priority areas of agriculture, large-scale investments and infrastructure.
He said the K210.679 million budget consisted of:

  • Internal revenue of K24.118 million;
  • national government grants of K165.564 million; and,
  • Rollover from former years (unused) of K20.97 million.

Numu said he was determined to provide his people with a stable provincial administration.
“My government is determined to change the misconception of a bad province,” he said.
“My administration is stable and the province is back in order.
“I’m free to deliver to my people.
“We want to work hard to improve the province. Within the two to three years, we want to get the province back among the top 10 best in the country.
“I am happy, as governor, that I have about K17.99 million, less K3 million, to work on this year after it was released late last year.”