Wabag MP’s call praised

BRAVO to Wabag MP Dr Lino Tom who made a call on the floor of the national Parliament on July 27.
He called on the leaders for a fair and equitable distribution of funds and resources across all the provinces of Papua New Guinea.
I agree that funds should be given to the Department of Works’ plant and tenders board to build and maintain roads.
Many private contracting companies are being used as contracting agents and are using PSIP, DSIP and local level government SIP funds.
This has become a norm across the country, with some of those funds ending up in the pockets and accounts of those who have already built their own castles in urban centres like Port Moresby and overseas.
It seems that not all of these funds reach the small, poor people in the rural areas.
Even if the contracts are done, most often there is almost always a job that is not finished because some of the money is hidden away somewhere. Most of our rural roads are so bad that vehicles don’t reach their destinations, forcing people to walk. Some waterways are clogged up with debris.
There have been countless calls to make the distribution of funds fair but nothing has happened, widening the gap between the haves in the urban centres and the have-nots in the rural areas.

William Bariga