The Governor for West New Britain, Sasindran Muthuvel, has called on the Government to prioritise its commitments and release funds for overdue projects in the provinces.
Muthuvel made this call, after still waiting on the government to release funds which were earmarked for projects in West New Britain.
“The bureaucratic process is a long, stringent and overwhelming procedure which will test your patience.
“It needs constant persistence, persuasion and a lot of energy, with as much support from our Provincial Administration to approve at least one major project.”
He said the approval for one major road project can take up to two (2) years just to go through the bureaucratic process; that is the realistic scenario faced by our Provincial Government today.
“There were several road reform systems in place over the last decade like the introduction of the National Road Authority (NRA) to introduce a road maintenance program for roads, but to an extent it couldn’t operate successfully upon its sustainability forecast as it was subjected to be.”
He added that this had led to a prolonged deterioration state that has seen most road links now need several millions of kina to rehabilitate.
“The longer an infrastructure is left unattended to in terms of maintenance, the larger the cost margin increases, and our limited income revenue does not even come close to covering cost to fix all our roads.
“The onus is on each responsible departments to work together to secure as much funding for the Province.”
Muthuvel said West New Britain remains grateful and honoured to its development partners especially the Asian Development Bank and JICA for giving prominence to funding major impact projects for the Province.