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| Opposition Leader Don Polye not happy with how PNG government prioritizing spending |
By FIDELIS SUKINA
Opposition Leader Don Polye has come down hard on the
Government for their spending as Papua New Guinea faces pressure to priorities
on priority areas of spending.
An unhappy Polye called a press conference on Thursday at
Parliament House to give his opinion on the recent report put out by the
Central Bank of Papua New Guinea which urged the government to spend only in
priority areas of the country.
“The Central Bank Governors report has fallen on deaf ears,
the research by very prudent researches the National Research Institute has fallen
on deaf ears, even advice given by the World Bank and IMF including other state
institutions like the treasury department reports has fallen on deaf ears.”
He added that the debt to GDP ratio in PNG was in a state
where we cannot incur any more debt as a country
“There has been so much spending by this Government there
has been no prioritizing spending by the O’Neill regime. The debt to GDP ratio
in PNG in the Mid-Year Physical Economic outlook report was over the allowable
debt and it has come to deaf ears.”
He said using excuses like the Pacific Games and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2018 meeting in Papua New Guinea was not good to slash funding from other sectors of government
"Some of the Pacific Games venues are still not completed and recently the Governor of the National Capital District Powes Parkop has announced K400 million funding for roads using the APEC as a reason".
“Everywhere the advices have been coming from competent and
specialized people but incompetent politicians have chosen not to listen to
them.” Polye said
He added that the opposition was aware of this and has been
talking about it, and now the Central bank is repeating it again
“The economy is declining we know about that, the opposition
has been saying that long time since the very beginning we know about this. We
did tell the Government we told the nation now the Bank of Papua New Guinea is
reiterating this point that the economy is declining spend on priority areas.”
He said the Prime Minister does not know economic management
only creative accounting he is a smart innovative accountant and he does that
very well.
“But when you come to economic management very poor I cannot
give him one mark I give him zero out of 100 but 100 out of 100 in creative
accounting.”
“People are asking we are sinking so how will it grow; we
have so much debt the government is slashing funds. We have churches asking the
Government recently to give their promised funds for church run health centers;
even the public service machinery funds are being cut.” Polye said
He added that the slashing of funds from priority areas of
the medium term development goals and the Vision 2050 shows ad hock spending
causing two different forces of economy
“There are two models of economy in PNG two concepts; one is
proposed by the Central Bank to start spending
on priority areas while the other is doing the opposite.” Polye said
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