Planning on region-wide basis impacts more, says treasurer

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Friday 30th December 2011

BOUGAINVILLE’S political leaders have been urged to consider development plans on a region-wide basis rather than in terms of their own constituencies or districts.
Autonomous Bougainville Government Finance, Treasury and Planning Minister Albert Punghau says using constituencies and districts as a criteria for allocating development resources resulted in small communities projects that made very little or no impact on the lives of the people.
He said this when presenting an outline of the ABG’s plans to spend the first K100 million of the national government’s special financing package of K500 million to ABG from 2012 to 2016.
He said the ABG had decided to use the four pillars of the Bougainville priorities for development 2011-15 as the basis to distribute the first K100 million as follows:
l    K8.5 million for peace and security;
l    K16.5 million for economic development;
l    K32.5 million for transport infrastructure;
l    K19.5 million for human development; and
l    K8 million for good governance.
Punghau said the allocation under the five main expenditure programmes amounted to K85 million.
The remainder of K15 million was allocated to fund projects in the constituencies, districts and Council of Elders areas.
“The government believes that there is a need to think laterally, in terms of the region and that is what we have done,” he said.