Full budgeted funds for K20 million for the Bougainville Referendum Commission (BRC), in the 2019 appropriation, has been released.
In a statement, Finance Minister Richard Maru said: “The first K10 million of the budget funds were transferred in two lots of K5m in February and April and the second and final K10m was transferred on 5 June 2019.
“Funds are now available to support the referendum exercise and we stand ready to support the BRC conduct the referendum.
“The K20m in the budget for the Bougainville Referendum Commission has now been fully disbursed to the Autonomous Region of Bougainville to carry the referendum exercise as committed by the National Government of Papua New Guinea.”
Maru stated that the Department of Finance helped create a main holding account with Bank of PNG and two subsidiary accounts (BRC Electoral and BRC Non Electoral) with BSP to hold funds for implementing the referendum exercise.
“The budget drawdown and transfers are managed by National Coordination Office Bougainville Affairs (NCOBA), the agency responsible for Bougainville Affairs.
“The Department of Finance supports NCOBA by training and installing the IFMS (Integrated Financial Management System) to execute the accounting process in the system. This arrangement and support is working well.
“I appeal to the ABG to adhere to all legal and compliance requirements of the Public Finance Management Act in the use of these funds.”
During an interview in April, Chief Referendum Officer, Mauricio Claudio, told media in Buka that though the Government has pledged K30 million to BRC – which was to be paid in three tranches – the Commission has only received K8.7 million of the funding.
However, the recent release of funding brings to total K28.7 million received from the National Government.
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