Southern Highlands budgets K240m for 2019

THE 2019 Southern Highlands provincial budget of K240 million is a continuation of the 2018 budget with a few changes, Governor William Powi says.
Powi tabled the budget at the provincial assembly in Mendi last Thursday.
The K240 million is made up of K151 million for development and K89 million for operations.
He said the Government was yet to release funds for the province including the Kutubu royalties of K25.5 million, GST (goods and services tax) of K5 million, development levy of K26 million, infrastructure development grant of K10 million from Kutubu, the K8.2 million from the Gobe oil project, unused development levy of K16 million, and high impact project funding of K25 million.
Of the K151 million in the 2018 budget, the Southern Highlands government received only K26 million of the development levy last month, Powi said.
“More than K150 million of our development levy is still be held back by government agencies such as National Planning and the Department of Petroleum,” he said.
“This affected the implementation of the 2018 budget.”
Some of the new projects are the K3.5 million for Mendi town roads, K2 million for Mendi town public service housing, K2 million for Mendi police housing, K1.5 million for peace and reconciliation, K1.6 million for the Mendi town water and sanitation project, K1 million for Mendi power, K1 million for the Mendi market and toilet facilities, K1 million for the Karinz road, K1 million for the Wiru High School, K1 million for the Upper Mendi High School, K1 million for the Karinz High School and K1 million for the Mendi School of Nursing.