Milne Bay Province has a record budget of more than K200 million for the 2017 fiscal year. This is an increase of K6 million from the 2016 appropriation.
“The Provincial Assembly passed the K200,293,500 budget by a unanimous vote after a marathon session in Alotau on Friday (Dec 16),” the provincial government said in a statement.
“The money plan is made up of National Government grants totalling K152,499,400, K27,259,900 in unspent 2016 grants, estimated internal revenue collection of K20,294,200 and K250,000 for the Governor’s non-discretionary fund.
“The theme of the 2017 budget for the 300,000 people of Milne Bay is ‘supporting economic growth in Milne Bay through fiscal consolidation’.”
Handing down the money plan earlier on Tuesday (Dec 13), Governor Titus Philemon told the Assembly that his government had “certainly delivered in the last four years as measured against the Integrated Provincial Development Plan (IPDP) 2016-2020”.
He said this was confirmed by physical evidence of infrastructure projects and delivery of basic services throughout the province in the form of roads, jetties, Digicel towers, airstrip maintenance, public buildings, health and education services, economic enhancement and church government partnership program.
“The budget for 2017 continues to empower the provincial government to drive our priority programs and activities outlined in the IPDP, with emphasis on fiscal consolidation and building a resilient economy through the provision of road, transport and communication infrastructure, SMEs and eco-tourism in the next five years,” Philemon said.
“We can’t depend on our limited internal revenues to support our development agenda. We must therefore continue to apply fiscal consolidation in order to continue to deliver effective services to our people.
“We must do this if we are to achieve one of our primary development objectives of transforming our household or domestic incomes by utilising our rich agriculture and marine resources, as well as creating new revenue heads like Jomard Passage to substantially increase our internal revenues.
“This is also a way forward to achieving autonomy for Milne Bay,” the Governor said.