Tamanabae, Oro admin deny claims

By JEFFREY ELAPA
THE Oro provincial government and the provincial administration have denied media reports that K20 million of public funds have been misused.
Governor Suckling Tamanabae and provincial administrator Owen Awaita said the Post-Courier report of the abuse of the
K20 million was misleading and inaccurate, “and it needed to be corrected”.
Tamanabae said during a press conference at Parliament House last Friday that the alleged missing money was part of the K410 million funding for the five-year development plan.
He said the funds were managed and drawn through the Oro Development Committee, a committee comprising of the secretary for finance as the chairman and the secretary for national planning and monitoring, the provincial administrator and divisional heads as members.
He said the committee was formed to draw down funds for development projects and so far, the committee had drawn the first K20 million from the K410 million for the education recovery plan in the province.
He said of the K20 million, about K12 million (60%) of the money was paid to contractors for mobilisation while the other 40% (K8 million) was going to be paid upon satisfactory completion of the projects.
Awaita said eight contractors had been selected to carry out maintenance to more than 10 educational institutional, including building an education resource centre.
He said all contracts followed proper procurement and provincial and central supply and tenders board processes to bring in quality material from New Zealand, while other local contractors had been subcontracted.
He said most of the projects would be started during the school holiday and they should be completed by February before school resumes.
“I must inform everyone that K12 million has been spent under Public Finance Management Act and there is no misuse. The Post-Courier report is absolutely defamatory and incorrect,” he said.