Mola: Probe funds in Kompiam-Ambum

WARD councillors in Enga’s Kompiam-Ambum electorate has called for an investigation to establish where about K10 million in project funding has gone to.
Ambum rural LLG ward one councillor Meck Mola said what the government-appointed Task Force Sweep team was doing was commendable and should also include districts like Kompiam-Ambum.
Speaking by cell phone from Wabag yesterday, Mola said it was also important that an independent audit team from the Office of Rural Development be dispatched to the district as early as possible to look into the district’s financial books.
“No district service improvement programme (DSIP) funds or other budgetary allocation should be released by National Planning or Treasury until the audits and investigations are completed,” Mola said.
“Those found guilty of breaching the Financial Management Act must be charged and prosecuted.”
He claimed that a number of major projects that have been budgeted for with money allocated had not materialised.
“There is nothing on the ground to show if work had started.”
He said such projects included:
l Meraimanda Rural Hospital with a funding allocation of K4.3 million from the 2011 budget. No land has been allocated for the project and no work has started;
l Kompiam rural market project where two payments of K900,000 were paid totaling K1.8 million. The first payment was made in 2010 and the second last year;
l Funding for a community resource centre has disappeared with nothing on the ground;
l Vehicles bought for the three LLGs and the proposed LLG have become private entities. Family members of those aligned with the local MP are using them for their own purposes, even to the extent of turning them into PMVs; and
l The millions of kina allocated for the Kompiam Coffee Rehabilitation Project have been diverted elsewhere and used to build a mansion-type warehouse. The owner is a close friend of the local MP and a senior university lecturer. Parts of that money were being used by a family to buy coffee beans.
“These concerns are only a tip of the iceberg now threatening Kompiam-Ambum,” Mola said.
“I call upon the ministers responsible for Finance and Treasury and National Planning and Monitoring not to release any funding or budgetary allocations for 2012 until the audit and investigations are completed.
“The culprits identified in stealing from the people of Kompiam-Ambum be charged, prosecuted and jailed if they cannot pay back what was stolen,” Mola said.