MP: Administration to blame

 By SHIRLYN BELDEN 

MENYAMYA MP Benjamin Philip has criticised the Menyamya district administration and public servants for failing to address the infrastructure woes in the electorate. 

He was responding to a report in The National yesterday on the concerns raised by the people and public servants that he was not doing enough in terms of infrastructure development, health and education. 

Philip said he should not be blamed because resources and funds had been made available and it was up to the public servants at the district administration to carry out the repairs and maintenance on the roads.

He said he had allocated more than half of the district support improvement programme (DSIP) funds for the roads and public services. He blamed the lack of commitment by public servants for the delay in providing the services to the people. 

“There were funds allocated to the district administration to do the work on the roads and other public infrastructure in the district,” he said. 

“About half of the DSIP was allocated in the previous years for that. The lack of services and run-down infrastructure felt right now are the result of the administration not doing its job well. 

“Of course I have not been to the district in the last eight months but the claim of neglecting these vital services for many years cannot go unchallenged. 

“I have done what I could do in the previous years and the state of infrastructure should not be that bad as claimed unless the people called the public servants at the district level are not doing their jobs.”

He said the joint district planning and budget priority committee meeting last year approved K3 million for roads and other vital public infrastructure. But the district administration failed to channel the money for these purposes.

“The public service has broken down that is why the electorate and the people are not getting what they should get from the government provided assistance,” he said. 

Provincial treasurer Andrew Namuesh confirmed that the provincial administrator had all the financial powers but could delegate them to district administrators if a situation warranted it.

He said the Public Finance Management Act required that the procurement processes should go through six stages – registration, commitment, examination, certification, authorisation, cheque printing and signing.

“Tasks executed by different officers, not the least, bank procedures to verify the account, if money was available, also fall in line,” Namuesh said.

The DSIP funds are controlled in Port Moresby. 

He said the process to release funds and cheques to be printed took time.