By Jack Lapauve Jr – EM TV, Port Moresby
Director of the Institute of National Affairs, Paul Barker wants to see more realistic planning for districts in the country.
Barker says better planning for projects will avoid unnecessary spending and ensure that services are delivered.
He praised the Papua New Guinea Government’s intention to be rural-based, in dishing out grants for services to reach rural people. However, Mr Barker wants to see stringent measures taken on procument.
“There have been improvements in some district around the country, but for most nothing has been done at all,” Barker said.
With the O’Neill-Dion Government focused on increasing District Service Improvement Program (DSIP) grants from K10 million to K15 million next year, Barker says that districts must put in place a sound, planned mechanism.
The push for services to the rural areas of Papua New Guinea is seeing fruition in some provinces, while others continues to struggle. Barker believes that for district grants to be tools for improvement, more work needs to be done and polished at the district level.
Mr Barker made these comments in a recent interview with EM TV’s Resource PNG.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NNBoGFFu5mY%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
