East New Britain Provincial Government

Speaking during the closing of a two-week garment and textile training at Laup ward, in the Sinivit LLG of Pomio District, local businesswoman Bungtabu Brown applauded the organisers of the training, but said there has to be a way forward to assist these trained tailors.

The town, in the past four weeks has experienced a spate of law and order issues resulting in loss of business, schools and key institutions such as health and banking services affected, a number of families losing homes and damaged properties.

The two security firms- Black Fox Security Services and NKCL Security will help the police and focus on keeping the access road from Rapolo junction to Rabaul Town patrolled and free of loitering groups harassing travelers.

The truck, valued at around K165,000, was purchased from Boroko Motors with funding from the Provincial Services Improvement Program (PSIP).

The truck was delivered to the PPL yard in Kokopo, on Friday, August 18th. It was received by the PPL management, headed by NGI regional operations manager, Paul Nau.

Governor Marum said too many times, people criticise PPL for power problems that they experience but do not know the hardships that this SOE faces. And as the host government, they have to assist this entity instead of criticising it.

The East New Britain Provincial Government is embracing ICT through its ICT Action Plan that was launched on Thursday, July 20th, in Kokopo by Governor Michael Marum.

Speaking at the launch, ENB Acting Provincial Administrator, Levi Mano, said ICT is now a work culture.

“ICT is the fundamental mechanism of profitability for companies and the effectiveness and efficiency for the public service, as well as other organisations.”

The launch conceded with the inauguration of Governor Michael Marum as patron of the Organization for Industrial Spiritual and Culture Association (OISCA) - Rabaul Chapter.

OISCA Board Chairman Sinai Brown said that the partnership between OISCA and the provincial government is to give the governor ownership, and honour schools in East New Britain who have graduated many successful people.

The teak tree is used to build houses. It can also be sold for an income.

Brown said OISCA has innovative programs that can send industrial workers to Japan to work for example.

The ENB government assisted with K200,000 to run the festivals from July 12th-16th.

Deputy chairman of the organising committee and Raluana LLG president, Tiolam Wawaga, thanked the provincial government and further acknowledged the ENB Tourism Authority, through its acting CEO, Grace Burua, and the ENB Provincial Administration, through the advisors for Commerce and Technical Services, for their support and contributions as members of the organising committee.

Advisor of the provincial sector responsible for ward programs - LLG and Ward Affairs Division, Rose August, said this is why three policies were endorsed in 2021.

This has enabled programs such as the swearing in and empowerment of Ward Development Committees (WDCs).

August said this is the first of many more programs to help build up the WDCs and ward governance.

The next program for the wards is ward recorders training on ward record books and accounting package that will be facilitated by the provincial divisions of planning and finance.

Projected at over K600 million, ENB Governor and Chairman of Finance in the Provincial Executive Council (PEC), Michael Marum, said the first pillar on ‘Making optimal use of available resources’ will get over K52 million.

“The second pillar of ‘Promoting economic development through primary and secondary processing’ is given just over K40m, while the third pillar on ‘Encouraging community participation and promoting family life’ will get over K30m,” he said on February 6^th.

Governor Michael Marum when handing down the budget on Monday, 6^th February told the Provincial Executive Council that the K618, 107, 790 consists of national government grants,  K340, 933,300, provincial internal revenue K101,200,000,  District Development Authority budget of K140, 404, 090 and Local Level Government budget of K35, 570,400.

East New Britain Provincial internal revenue for 2023 is forecasted to be K101, 200,000 which comprises of K31,000,000 as recurrent and K34,000,000 as development including former years of K36, 200,000.

Governor Nakikus Konga presented the K256 million budget to Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, Charles Abel, yesterday in Port Moresby.

From the amount, the provincial government sum stands at K233,344,456 while the local level government’s budget stands at K22,820,800.

The ENB budget is framed against the Provincial Budget Framework Theme ‘Nurturing Sustainable Economic Growth and Development through Infrastructure and SME Development’.