The Department of Finance controls money allocated for the Sepik Economy Zone (SEZ) because it is a National Government project.
That is the clarification from Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister, Richard Maru.
The SEZ project is located in Minister Maru’s Yangoru-Saussia District in East Sepik.
“Finance has all the records, they decide and sign all the cheques, so all the cheques that go out, Finance gives the authorisation, (and) are the ones doing the acquittals,” Maru responded to a question from Loop PNG.
“It’s not that the funds are in an account that we control, the funds are in a trust account that the Finance (Department) controls.”
The National Government last year allocated K50 million to the SEZ project.
Meanwhile, Department of Planning First Assistant Secretary, Koney Samuel, said the National Government is looking at developing projects that will support the local and national economy, and the SEZ project is one of them.
Samuel heads the Monitoring and Evaluation Division and is part of the SEZ Project Steering Committee.
He said from the K50 million allocated, the assessment team that visited the proposed project area last year were impressed with the ground work.
They were speaking at the opening of a road link on Wednesday, connecting the main Sepik Highway to the proposed Sepik Economic Zone (SEZ) area in the Kiniambu – Kamatohu areas.