Kulang explains grant payments

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tobias Kulang says the practice of bodies under his ministry paying grants to his office existed before his time.
He said this yesterday in response to concerns raised by Auditor-General Philip Nauga about government bodies paying monthly grants to ministers.
Nauga said in his 2015 report that National Museum and Arts Gallery was paying K20,000 per month to the ministry, Tourism Promotion Authority K25,000 and National Cultural Commission K8,333.33
“The practice has existed for a number of years under ministers before my time,” Kulang said in response to a report in The National yesterday.
“The comments of the Auditor-General are in order and refer to 2015 financial year.
“However, there is no current structure to support the operations of the minister.
“Office of Tourism Arts and Culture (OTAC) was set up to support the Office of Minister but failed.
“There is quite a gap and now that OTAC is disbanded, a structure will need to be set up with funding support to assist the minister perform his or her role.
“I think the assistance from the sectors under the minister highlighted by the Auditor-General here was for this purpose.
“Due to the current cash flow situation, during the last six months of me being the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, we have not put any pressure on the three sectors to support us with these funds,” Kulang said.
“Only less than K50,000 was received in total from the sectors over six months and this will be acquitted in full.”