Provincial Members have been raising concerns and called for decentralization of powers and functions especially to lift the restrictions on functional grants which are intended for service delivery priorities specified under the Inter-Government Relations Financial Arrangement (IGRFA) Act.
Recently East Sepik Provincial Member Allan Bird highlighted on his Facebook post that block grants aren’t a new concept, Australia uses it and our old provincial government used it.
Mr Bird further said that a block grant would empower provinces to create opportunities in all 22 provinces based on their individual needs.
The Minister for Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs Soroi Eoe says the Government is seriously considering the review of Section 91 to 96 of the Organic Law on the Provincial Government and Local-level Government that governs the administration of functional grants.
Other enabling legislation such as Inter-Government Relations Financial Arrangement (IGRFA) Act is also being reviewed to remove restrictions on the use of functional grants.
Minister Eoe said the provincial members demand removal on restrictions to be lifted so that they could use the functional grants to fund priority areas including funding of the implementation of Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP IV).
“These grants are placed under sectors like health, education, transport infrastructure maintenance, primary production and village court,” Minister Eoe said.
Minister Eoe said once the restriction on functional grants is lifted, provincial governments will expend according to their development priorities.
Minister Eoe said block grants was one of the 30 resolutions, the provincial members passed in the two conferences convened last year.
He further highlighted that National Executive Council (NEC) in its decision 190/2023 endorsed and requested powers and functions be transferred which include consideration for block grants that will allow the flexibility for provinces to divert funds to provincial priorities.
“The block grants were used in the 1977 Organic Law on Provincial Governments and was removed in the 1995 reforms.
“The main reason for the removal under the 1995 reform was because of abuse and misappropriation of block grants, hence the changes to functional grants. The Marape/Rosso government is committed to ensure this is implemented and provinces can use the funds on provincial specific priority areas,” Minister Eoe said.
Minister Eoe further alluded that National Government is committed to transfer more powers, functions and resources to further empower the sub-national governments to develop and grow their respective economies.
He said the role of the National Government is to make national laws and policies, set service standards and hold the sub-national governments and leaders accountable to ensure value for money, strengthening the systems and processes at the sub-national levels to ensure checks and balances.
