State to restore services

 THE Government remains committed to rehabilitating infrastructure in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville to restore basic services, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says.

“The Government will continue to honour its commitment in releasing K100 million annually for the remaining four years,” he said.

“The Government in 2012 made a commitment to allocate K500 million over a five-year period to rehabilitate infrastructure throughout Bougainville. But despite the K100 million funding released last year, nothing much has been done there.”

He told the FM100 talk-back show last Thursday that the monetary allocation was committed to rehabilitate the run-down infrastructure in the region. 

He said the funding last year was given to the ABG and it was solely responsible for acquitting the funds.

“There are also Special Resolution Grants sitting in trust accounts that need to be spent on upgrading infrastructure there,” he said.

“With the history of the crisis and the loss of lives, it was important for the national government to go back and engage with the people of Bougainville and apologise traditionally for all the hardship created not only for Bougainville but for PNG as well.”

He said it was an eye-opening experience for the government delegation he led to the region recently. 

He thanked ABG president John Momis, his cabinet members and the four Bougainville MPs for putting aside their differences and working together to move the region forward.