K50bn spent on services

By HELEN TARAWA
The Government spends about K50 billion a year to deliver goods and services in the country even though it never makes as much revenue, Finance Minister James Marape says.
Speaking at the official announcement of the amended Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) which takes effect from January 2017,  Marape said since Independence, PNG has not been able to generate revenue to sustain its needs.
He said the estimated costs for the four key sectors of infrastructure, education, health and law and order were high.
Marape said to maintain 20,000 kilometres of roads in the country, it would require K20 billion a year.
“To deliver quality average to medium scale health services, the cost would stand at about K16 billion per year,” he said.
“In the education sector, there are about three million children. To give quality education on an average expenditure of K2000 per child would cost K6 billion. To maintain law and order for citizens, it costs K800 million per year at K100 per citizen of a population of about eight million people.
“So it brings home an important message to everyone of us. We must be prudent deliverers of goods and services in this country.
“We must not be complacent in thinking that every physical budget we have every year is in surplus when you compare in the context of the total need of our country since 1975.
“Our need has always outweighed the actual envelope of money we have every year as revenue,” Marape said.
“Finance department, for starters, must be the last department that thinks that we have excess cash every time from opening of financial year to the rush events in the close-of-accounts period.
“No one talks about revenue, yet we all talk about expenditure. Our expenditure envelope has remained thin since 1975.”