District Services Improvement Program

In a special meeting held last Friday in Lorengau, the DDA board, under the chairmanship of Open Member Job Pomat, passed a resolution that K400,000 from the District Services Improvement Program funds will be given to the islanders.

M’buke was hit by strong winds on May 5, wrecking 54 homes. 218 people remain at a care centre on the island.

John Simon says the closing date of accounts is nearing fast and yet, he and other members of the Opposition have not received their fair share of the DSIP funds.

The member described this as an unfair distribution of wealth which should not be practiced.

Simon lashed out at the government, stating the DSIP is not for the member or the district alone but it is rightfully for the people.

Meantime, the Member states that the government should change the name of DSIP funds to something more suitable to the current state of affairs. 

Kuman confirmed that an Open Member receives K10m for the district and 20 percent of that goes to education.

He said therefore every Member of Parliament (MP) has the responsibility to build the capacity of schools in their districts.

“The Government pays for school fees under the Tuition Free Fee Policy and we make sure that teaching and learning materials are at the schools.

“We make sure that the teachers are trained properly and are at school, that’s our responsibility,” Kuman said.

The Chuave district had submitted acquittal reports of only K3 million of their spending and could not produce the remaining more than K6 million because of the loss of documents to criminals.

Mori revealed this during the presentation of his 2015 DSIP acquittal reports to the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD) this week.