A call has been made to the Autonomous Bougainville Government to utilize companies and major businesses on Bougainville to form a consortium.
A village elder from the Wisai area in the Konnou Constituency of South Bougainville, Joe Patuai told LOOP PNG that Bougainville has now got some reputable businesses and companies the government needs to help.
“With funding the government needs to really chip in and help our own companies to bid for tenders especially from the National Government,” Patuai said.
“We already have a lot of reputable companies here on Bougainville. It’s just a small number of rotten apples that spoil the reputation of Bougainvillean companies, especially with road construction, but it is important we support our local companies and businesses,” he said.
Patuai said these companies need to come together and form a consortium so it will be easy for the ABG to fund instead of giving to individual companies.
“We already have cases that need to be investigated. Some contractors got mobilization funds from the Government to move materials but nothing has eventuated,” Patuai said.
Bougainville now has ten building and construction companies.