MP uncovers funding worries

Provinces and districts throughout the country have no knowledge of how much services improvement programme (Sip) funds are frontloaded to their finance offices by the Department of Finance, Markham MP Koni Iguan says.
He suggested that provincial and district grants should be parked at the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (Dird) to disburse to provinces and districts for accountability and transparency.
Iguan said this while presenting his 2016-2017 outstanding district services improvement programme funding acquittal to Dird in Port Moresby on Friday. He said provinces and districts were only submitting “paper reports” to Dird for compliance purposes.
Iguan said Dird did not have the exact figures of how much Sip grants were frontloaded from the Finance Department.
“I, being the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, want all Sip funds to be parked at Dird office,” he said.
“This is so they know how much is being frontloaded, submit reports and get the next load of funds for development purposes.”
Iguan said when Sip funds were disbursed directly from Finance, the figures did not reconcile and consolidate with actual compliance reports furnished to Dird.
Dird and Finance come under Finance Minister James Marape.
Dird acting secretary Aihi Vaki said the current system complicated the reporting process.
He called on provinces and districts to consult Dird for technical advice when implementing the Sip funding.
He said public servants in provinces and districts throughout the country lacked adequate skills and knowledge to absorb Sip.
Vaki said despite the huge developmental grants to provinces, districts and wards, officers lacked the capacity to implement it.
“They need to be upskilled,” he said. “Now, which agency is responsible for that capacity building?
“The Sip is a very important home grown government policy and is here for the long haul.
“Therefore, all government agencies must seriously focus on developing and improving the engineroom at the sub-national level, as we all know that this programme is decentralised.”