Source: Post Courier Editorial- Tuesday 1st October 2024
The national budget provides K2.4 billion to the Members of Parliament to take to their districts every year to spend on development projects.
In the districts today, there is nothing on the ground to show for that money and to add salt to the wound, we do not have any reports to tell us how or where that money was used.
Any fool who is not familiar with how the government system in PNG works will see clearly that something is definitely not right.
Provincial Services Improvement Programs (PSIP), District Services Improvement Programs (DSIP) and every other grant allocated to districts amount to more than K2.4 billion which are managed by the District Development Authorities, headed by the local Member of Parliament.
These funds are the main source of public funding districts get to make a big difference in the lives of the people who reside in remote and rural communities around the country.
With nothing on the ground to show for that money, it is no wonder we are getting many complaints about the corruption and the many unfinished project left behind by the companies or people who were engaged.
Many of our rural communities are saddled with a lot of socioeconomic concerns today, and yet money that should address these concerns and transform their lives are not working.;
The complaints have fallen on deaf ears, with agencies like the Ombudsman Commission, the Auditor General, the Police and other anti corruption bodies doing literally nothing to hold the MPs and their administrations to account for the huge sums of money that are entrusted with every year. The guidelines on the use of these electoral funds specifically provides for the Department of Rural Development and Monitoring to conduct random checks to report on the spending of ;the funds and the projects that are completed but to date, we have yet to see this done.
ACT NOW!, a leading civil society organisation in the country this week raised the alarm on the appalling ack of accountability and transparency in the use of this money in the districts.
ACT NOW! says of the 96 districts, only 24& have submitted their acquittal reports. And the reports that are provided are kept hidden from the public so it looks like we will never know for sure how the K2.5 billion in electoral development funds are used.
In the absence of these financial reports, we have to assume that our MPs, both current and past, with their district administrations, have breached the leadership Code, the Public Finance Management Act and other laws.
This is a Leadership Code matter. What is the Ombudsman Commission doing about this. Do we expect the Auditor General to carry out an inspection into the books for districts and report on its findings? Should the Police look into such claims.
This country is going to celebrate 50 years of its independence around this time next year and yet our people's lives have not changed much. Money that should be put to good use to achieve this has been spent elsewhere.
Calls for the removal of this discretionary or slash fund for the MPs over the have fallen on deaf ears.
No prime minister will remove the only source of funding that is at his disposal for self preservation.
If the electoral development programs are to remain a prominent development strategy, we need a stringent and effective performance management system to ensure effective and efficient delivery of projects from this money.
Whether its tructural, policy or legal reforms, we must come up with new measures to ensure that the public funds going into districts are used properly and the deserved outcomes are obtained.
We understand that in PNG, public servants find it hard to control politicians so that is why we need action from competent state agencies like the Ombudsman Commission to do their work properly, to force MPs to tow the line in the management of public funds.