Caption: Finance Minister James Marape
By
MATTHEW VARI
FINANCE Minister James Marape assured Members in, parliament on Friday, a bold statement that the government will never go broke.
He made the comment when addressing queries regarding reports of cash flow constraints, government commitments in the 2015 buget, and the timely payment of DSIP and PSIP funds to district and provinces this year.
“The government is not going broke as many doomsayers continue to say, government will never be broke and we will stick to our money plan- we do not have to panic,” Minister Marape said.
“If the government is not composed, if the government does not have money today- you and me will not be sitting in this house without electricity running, our children’s fees paid on time.”
“Early on this year in January our major government program free education has been ticked off with K300 million being remitted across the Education Department so that our tuition fee free education program is rolled our immediately.”
He said that under the leadership of the treasurer and the prime minister they are mindful of the global economics with the contrast of a declining oil prices.
“We are closely monitoring what is out there for the benefit for our people, and let me comfort everyone that our economy is tracking on target as we plan for expenditure in the January period,” Marape said.
“All government programs will run on target as we planned for- I want to tell this house and the people of the country that your economy is secure and we will honor all our commitments as we did last year.”
“We closed our accounts last year on time in 2014, with our records saying, despite many saying that our books were not tidy, all our numbers were ticked off up to 97 percent of total budget commitments.”
He said that as far as DSIP and PSIP were concerned- no district, LLG, or province in the country had been underserved.
“As we go into the February period we will look into our cash flows- we are now starting to honor our big ticket item which is education that amounts to K603 million.”
“That amount will be completely transferred from Waigani Public accounts to education, and as we clear that commitment to our children and people our next commitment is our PSIP and DSIP priority.”
“Base on cash flow, but one of the prerequisites as you go about accessing funds is your acquittals. They must come in because they trigger the release of PSIP and DSIP to all districts and provinces.”
“Your PSIP and DSIP are coming with 100 percent remittance to all concerned in this country, but the onus is on yourselves to ensure we receive your acquittals.
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