ALTERNATIVE Prime Minister Nominee and Member for Finschhafen Hon. Rainbo Paita today called for an independent inquiry by ICAC and the Ombudsman Commission into the Government’s actions to transfer funds outside of the budgetary appropriation approved by the National Parliament.
Mr Paita expressed serious concerns regarding the actions of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer following the misappropriation of funds allocated to the people of Gulf Province.
“In his statement, Governor Sir Chris Haiveta outlined how a Department of Treasury warrant (warrant 07.02 dated 8 July 2024) approved the release of K60 million to the Enga Provincial Government (EPG) was in direct contravention of the 2024 Appropriations Act,” he said.
Mr Paita said that of the K60 million to be released, K20 million had in fact been appropriated to the Gulf Provincial Government.
“Clearly, the K20 million of the K60 million approved for release to EPG rightly belongs to the people of Gulf Province and K30 million was part of the IDG funds budgeted for the people of Hela and Southern Highlands (PNG LNG).
“I am trying to understand why all of a sudden, EPG is so important than the rest of the country right now that, we have to cut and misapply funds allocated for other provinces to cater for expenditures right after I hear in the previous week a K10 million from the Special Intervention Program (SIP) Funds under Department of National Planning was also paid to EPG – thus a total of K70 Million was paid to EPG,” Mr Paita said.
The Alternative Prime Minister said that the actions of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer amount to gross misappropriation of funds and abuse of the office.
