BULOLO MP Sam Basil has called on Finance Minister James Marape not to use administrative bottlenecks as an excuse to stop members of the Opposition from receiving their K10 million District Services Improvement Programme (DSIP) funds.
Basil said this on Wednesday after Finance Department officers in Port Moresby, allegedly acting under instructions from Marape, had called him and asked him to produce certain documents before he could access the funds. According to Basil, Marape had asked for his five-year district plan and his Joint District Planning and Budget Priority Committee (JDP&BPC) resolution before funds would be released. “I challenge the minister to publish in the media the names of all the MPs who had submitted their five-year plans and JDP&BPC and were paid their K10 million,” Basil said. “What the minister did to Bulolo is childish and not in the true spirit of the Constitution. “The Constitution calls for the equal distribution of wealth, and the people of Bulolo should not be made to suffer. “The practice was, once the funds are ready and announced in parliament, MPs go and stand in line and collect their cheques,” he said. Last week, Basil had gone to the extreme by organising his supporters in Port Moresby and marching to Vulupindi House where the Finance Department is housed to air his district’s concern. Basil said he had received only K1 million of the K10 million promised by the government, and is still waiting for clearance of another K2 million. The deputy Opposition leader took to Facebook posting: “It looks like James Marape will keep on holding back Oppositions’ funds and has threatened to use his powers to spend those funds by-passing the Bulolo district Joint District Planning & Budget Priority Committee.” Basil said he was not the only one affected as his colleagues in the Opposition were facing a similar plight. Basil said all the projects he initiated in Bulolo district had come to a halt because there was no funds to continue them. He told his Buang people during a visit that he was an elected MP and like the other MPs, had the right to development funds earmarked for the people regardless of whether he was in government or Opposition Comments are closed.
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