Eddie Tanago Paine | ACT NOW!
District Development Authorities were established in 2014 by Act of Parliament with the intention to decentralise powers and functions of government and key government agencies to lower levels.
It was done with good intentions, I would assume.
However, there are a number of issues that exists within DDAs and how they are operated.
One major issue is transparency and accountability in planning, expenditure and reporting.
Five year District Development Plans are a key development road map and every district should have developed one in consultation with its stakeholders. It outlines what the district aims to achieve in the next five years.
We read about plans being launched but you don’t see them in the public domain. I wonder if the plans were done in consultation with district’s key stakeholders and if the people in the district are aware of their development plans for the coming five years.
All 96 districts in Papua New Guinea by now should all have their 2022- 2027 five year development plans.
However, according to the ACT NOW! run website, DDA Watch June 2025 report, 59 out of 96 districts did not have a five year plan. Only 37 districts, less than half the total have five year development plans.
Five year plans too must be accompanied by budgets and these documents must be made publicly available to its constituents. However, these has not been the case. Again the DDA Watch June 2025 report shows there is a total lack of these documents publicly available.
To make matters worse, DDAs have a really terrible record of producing acquittals come end of each year. Each DDA is given K10 million per year by the government. Media reports and research has shown very poor transparency and accountability.
If only the people know what’s been planned and budgeted, they are able to provide the social audits on the ground and are able to question their DDAs and MPs if promised developments do not happen.
Overall, there is clear lack of transparency and accountability in the planning, budgeting, expenditure and reporting of these public funds received by DDAs.
The Ombudsman Commission has failed its mandate by not holding DDA CEOs accountable for the lack of transparency and accountability.
Simple, stop releasing funds if there are no plans, budgets and both narrative reports and financial acquittals are not produced.