Major spending cuts predicted

THE latest ANZ Bank Pacific Insight, an independent report on the performance of the national economy, has confirmed a multi-billion kina shortfall in budget funding and said substantial spending cuts were inevitable this year, it says.
The report also confirmed that failure to conclude negotiations on major resource projects, including P’nyang, Wafi-Golpu and Porgera, will result in “irreversible damage to the economy”.
Ialibu-Pangia MP Peter O’Neill said the scale of the economic disaster created by a year of hollow words and inaction was almost beyond belief and the country had had enough.
An attempt made yesterday to get a comment from Prime Minister James Marape regarding the report, was unsuccessful.
In a statement yesterday, O’Neill said: “The incredible economic potential and opportunities for business investment in our people and country have been wasted by incompetence and self-serving political ambition.
“The harm this government has forced upon our 10 million people is now about to get a lot worse if change is not forced on the government.
“At the heart of our economy, the potential is still there.
“This independent economic assessment has confirmed the worst fears in the country that the government is out of options to fund the budget.
“The urgency of the pain that is coming in the following months was made clear by the ANZ Bank report that noted a funding gap would result in “unavoidable” spending cuts of K2.7 billion.
“To put this in terms of what it means for the men, women and children of Papua New Guinea, there will be drastic spending cuts on vital services in areas such as education, health, police, judiciary and many other areas.
“The only option to cut services is clear, independently verified by, yet, another high- level assessment and now Marape has to face the people and tell the country what he will cut and who he will make suffer even more.
“Will it be school and university students and their families, people with disabilities, victims of crime and violence, people attending courts, public servants who will not be paid and development projects in remote and rural districts that will be cancelled?”
O’Neill said the only option was to bring the economy back to life through the restoration of business confidence and activity that will stimulate investment and drive business growth.