Madang Province yesterday deliberated on their Provincial Budget, which is anticipated to be passed by the Provincial Executive Council later.
Madang Governor Ramsey Pariwa was very happy to see the turnout of this year’s budget plan as they never had assembly meetings in the last two years which has resulted in underutilizing funds and a huge roll over.
The first draft of the budget plan was tabled and deliberated on by the heads of different government sectors, and stakeholders who came to witness the budgetary allocations to each of their sectors this year.
Governor Pariwa said he was happy to have been part of the budget process. This will now allow him to have full visibility of the province’s expenditures.
“Mi no rubber stamp bai mi stampim nating na signim na go, I will look at details, I will inspect your projects or service yu providim too. So, we are going to be tough with the budget now, moni blong ol pipol blong Madang. They sent me here to guard it and I will use every effort, lo mi make sure that disla money is well accounted for,” the Governor said.
The total internal revenue estimated for this year stands at K164,182,400 which is higher than last year’s K59,991,800
The tabled summary of allocations by sector included:
- Political Governance – K6,650,000
- Administrative Governance – K13,770, 000
- Health Sector – K100,000
- Education Sector – K16,000, 000
- Economic Sector – K10,250, 000
- Law and Justice Sector – K540,000
- Transport and Infrastructure Sector – K150,000
- Special Projects – K85,500,000
- LLG Support – K3,800,000
- Total of K136,760,000
Each sector head had the opportunity to dispute allocations given, contribute ideas of how to boost internal revenue, query allocations or capture other aspirations within the budget.
Both the governor and administrator agreed that the budget after being passed can always be subjected to a review or budget maintenance over time to attend to sectors needing more allocations. The Governor also informed all sector heads that from this year going forward, there will be budget review meetings every three months and all are required to attend.
The Governor would like to see the budget reflect the people’s aspirations.