New funds’ custodians eyed

FINANCE and Rural Development Minister James Marape plans to transfer the management of provincial and district service improvement programme funds to the Department of Implementation and Rural Development.
Marape told officers of the department that would transfer the role of custodian of the funds to them if they could prove to the government that they had the capacity to be the custodians.
“I want help build a stronger and better public service system,” he said.
“So we will look into transferring the custodian status to the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD).”
Marape said they would restructure the administrative guidelines so that one per cent of the district and provincial funding would be given to the DIRD for monitoring.
“Most times DIRD officers are not able to go out to the rural areas and verify reports or see what’s happening there because they do not have the funds to travel,” he said.
“So we will have to restructure the DSIP and PSIP administrative guidelines so that they have the funding to monitor the DSIP and PSIP funds.
“And they will also be able to bring back reports to present to the Government and the people that the services and developments are taking place in a particular area.”