Madang planning committee abused powers, says report

THE Madang joint planning and budget committee abused its position and authority in approving the purchase of 19 vehicles, a report has revealed.
The Ombudsman Commission’s report tabled in Parliament yesterday revealed that the committee had wrongly awarded the contract for the purchase of the vehicles for local level government presidents.
Investigations into the alleged misuse and misapplication of the services improvement programme (SIP) grants discovered irregularities surrounding the expenditure of public funds, procurement of goods and services and the financial management process.
The commission found that the committee acted wrongly when it decided to award the contract for the purchase of 19 vehicles from Ela Motors for the presidents.
The report also revealed that the provincial administration and the provincial treasurer had acted wrongly when they improperly facilitated the committee’s decision to purchase the 19 vehicles for the local level government presidents in the province.
The provincial administration and the office of the governor deliberately ignored the governing laws and regulations and proceeded with diverting K2,834,507.80 and abused their position, authority, power and their respective officers to enforce the governor’s policy decision.
The commission had recommended that the governor of Madang and the provincial administrator ensure that the provincial government complied with budgetary processes outlined in the constitution, the Organic Law on Provincial and local level governments, and the Public Finance Management Act 1995 when developing the annual Appropriation Act for the province.
It also recommended that all committee and district development authorities should comply with Section 25 of the Organic Law on the provincial and local level governments.
The report recommended that the Madang governor should comply with the salaries remuneration committee determination when making appointments of staff.
The provincial administrator as the chief accounts officer and Section 32 officer must do the due diligence checks on all Finance forms prior to approving them, the report said.