Kulang praises DSIP concept

National, Normal
Source:

The National Thursday, 26th January 2012

KUNDIAWA Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang has hailed the district services improvement programme (DSIP) as a good rural intervention programme initiated by the national government.
Kulang said this while presenting his 2011 constitutional grants and development programme funds reports (including the district support grant acquittals, rural feeder roads and agriculture) to the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD) last Friday.
Department acting secretary Paul Sai’i, assistant director  Badira Vari and programme manager Anna Bae officially received the reports.
Kulang said nearly 80% of the people lived in rural villages and that the provision of basic government goods and services to rural areas was vital for the betterment of the people.
He said last year’s DSIP funds were spent on district transport and infrastructure improvement programmes because road networks were very important.
“It is common knowledge that when there are good road networks, other government services easily flourish,” he said.
He reiterated that
“in terms of DSIP”, the direct funding to the district was basically for
development purposes and funds should be used for what they were intended.
“Political involvement should only be at the legislative level while the part on implementation of the programmes should be left to the bureaucrats.
“Currently, the programme has been politically manipulated from identification of projects, awarding of contracts and down to procuring of goods and services,” he said. 
He said they needed to seriously manage this programme well to ensure rural development.
Kulang was elected in a by-election after the death of Joe Mek Teine last year. 
Bae said Kundiawa-Gembogl was the first district in Chimbu province and the region to submit DSIP acquittals report for 2011 to DIRD. 
She commended the district for its tremendous effort in compiling and furnishing acquittals on time.