By Sylvester Gawi – EM TV, Lae
The Nawaeb District Administration has spent, almost a million kina, on paying outstanding bills for the usage of hire cars, in previous years. Nawaeb MP, Gisuwat Siniwin, made this known when delivering six new vehicles for his district, last week.
He also called on other districts in Papua New Guinea to purchase their own vehicles and not waste money on hiring vehicles.
Nawaeb district is a coffee producing district in PNG, however, poor government services in previous years has left the district and its people to suffer.
Siniwin, a retired teacher who has been in the public service for decades, described his district as “one of the neglected” in the country. The district is now looking at restoring accountability in spending government funds, to ensure funds are fully used to serve the people.
“So much money ( around K900,000) has been spent on outstanding payments of hiring vehicles, that same amount could have been used to buy new vehicles,” says Siniwin.
The amount of money spent on hiring one vehicle for a year is about K250,000, the same cost for purchasing two brand new vehicles.
In almost every district in Papua New Guinea, about a million kina is spent on the hiring of vehicles, which should be better spent elsewhere; such as, on road and bridge infrastructures, education and health facilities in remote areas.
“Some of us are getting cars from our wantoks and paying them large sums of money. That is unacceptable and we should buy our vehicles for our district so the money stays to develop the district,” Siniwin says.
In one reported instance, MP’s and administrations were reportedly found to be colluding with hire car companies to hire vehicles at a cost of K800 to K1000 per day.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=avfCT3KhLSc%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
