Toe the line, donors told

NATIONAL Planning Minister Paul Tiensten has cautioned donor partners to align their development programmes with the government’s medium-term development plan or get their money and go somewhere else.
“Developing countries around the world require aid to develop, but we must tie the aid into our budget.
“If we do not tie the aid, then we will be running parallel systems that will undermine the budget,” the minister said.
He said in the last 35 years, there was no clear plans or directions and most development partners went out of their way to sign sweetheart deals with government departments and provincial governments to run their aid programmes.
The national executive council on Monday endorsed the MTDP 2011-15, in what Tiensten had described as “a new era of development planning for Papua New Guinea”.
He said all development partners, including the international donor community, would need to revise and align their strategies and plans with these national long-term and medium-term plans.
He said this was the key message delivered to development partners at their first consultative meeting on Tuesday.
He was speaking at Wednesday’s presentation of the Western Highlands development plan 2010-15 by Governor Tom Olga.
Also in attendance was State Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare.
“Development partners are part of the total resource envelope of K65 billion to run the MTDP over the next five years.”
He said development partners were putting money into HIV/AIDS programmes which was not getting any result.
Tiensten said development partners should be spending money on the government’s priority areas contained in the MTDP.
“Many donor partners go to international forums and say they spend so much aid funding for PNG, but most of these funds – about 70% – are paid to consultants and advisers.
“Development partners will also have to change the way they do business and fully align themselves to implement the MTDP.
“This is the beginning of an ongoing dialogue with various stakeholders in ensuring that there is real alignment in policy, programming and implementation,” Tiensten said.
Somare said the MTDP’s endorsement by cabinet would ensure every MP, minister, governor and bureaucrat “sing from the same MTDP hymn sheet”.