Projects on hold due to funding

AITAPE-Lumi in West Sepik was not able to complete some of its projects two years ago due to a temporary suspension of funds.
This was according to chief executive officer John Ainep when presenting the district’s acquittals for 2017 and 2018 to the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (Dird) in Port Moresby this week.
Ainep said the Finance Department still owed the district K8 million for 2017 and K2.25 million for 2018.
However, he said the K8 million was scraped from the supplementary budget review from the national government then.
“This led the district in not having to pay outstanding commitment to various companies for contracted projects and others which were funded by the national government in the 2016 fiscal year, projects like the district solar lighting, disaster programme and many other projects,” he said.
Ainep commended the department for providing technical advice and facilitating and rolling out the government’s home grown policy of the services improvement programmes in the provinces and districts in the country.
He said Dird officials were helpful in assisting districts and provinces who faced implementation constrains and difficulty in the areas of project scoping, compiling acquittal reports (financial and physical), monitoring and inspection.
“I would like to thank Dird officers who have been doing good job in visiting the districts to physically verify and see what has been put up with monies which were disbursed to the districts,” he said.
“And be able to help district stuff by giving advice and guidance so that proper procedures are followed by furnishing acquittals.”
Aitape and Lumi used to be separate districts before the reformations which amalgamated these two used to be districts into one. Aitape is on the coast while Lumi is located inland.