Govt’s intention queried

The Government has been questioned on its real intention behind the enactment of the Public Money Management Regularisation Act 2017.

Opposition Member and Kavieng MP, Ian Ling-Stuckey, told Parliament last week that the Act attracted public criticism since it came into operation in April 2018.

Ling-Stuckey, who is also the Shadow Minister for Treasury & Finance, said the PMMR Act received much opposition from affected state entities, including the National Fisheries Authority, PNG Forest Authority, the PNG Chamber of Mines and most recently, the National Information & Communications Technology Authority.

The Act was created to regularise the handling and management of money received by public and statutory bodies, however, concerns have been raised that the new law allowed the Finance Department to freeze bank accounts and transfer all their money into Finance.

Ling-Stuckey then directed his question to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill: “Can you confirm that the PMMR Act is a draconian law enacted by Government, out of desperation, simply to access money earned by state entities established under respective acts of parliament, with powers to raise and spend money?

“Was this new money law enacted by Government, hoping to bail out the country of the financial mess and low cash flow problems Government itself has created?”

In response, the Prime Minister said the Act was enacted partly to help public or statutory bodies raise revenue, but not keep them.

“We have established statutory authorities and agencies of government with the desire to improve service delivery but unfortunately, that has not been the case,” said O’Neill.

“We have established little empires everywhere; people receiving money on behalf of our people and government, and managing at free-will.”

Prime Minister O’Neill further said it is not a draconian law; the Act aims to ensure accountability of the people’s money.

Meantime, O’Neill told Parliament that the Finance Department has established a separate account to deal with those access funds that have been brought in, which amount to close to K1.6 billion.

(Opposition Member and Kavieng MP, Ian Ling-Stuckey)

Author: 
Carmella Gware