STATEMENT BY THE HON JOEL BANAM, MHR, MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE ABG REGARDING ACQUITTALS OF HIP FUNDS The Hon. Joel Banam, MHR, ABG Minister for the Public Services responded, on behalf of the President, Hon. Chief John Momis, GCL, MHR, who is away from Bougainville on official duties, to the statement made in the National Parliament on Friday, 20th of September, 2013 by the Hon. Steven Piriki, MP, the Member for South Bougainville and Minister of Bougainville Affairs regarding HIPs acquittals. The Minister full statement is below: "The ABG is yet again forced to respond to non-factual and erroneous reports that the ABG has not acquitted the funds granted to it as a part of the K.500m Special Intervention Fund, approved at the 2011 JSB and re-affirmed at the 2012 JSB. The ABG is concerned that a Minister of the National Government, and moreover, a Minister for Bougainville Affairs and a member for South Bougainville, would be so much in the dark that he would voice such an inaccuracy. Further, the ABG is alarmed at the assertion that because the funds have not been acquitted the ABG will not receive the further K100m agreed to be disbursed for 2013. The ABG has made it quite clear that it is in the process of rolling out the first tranche of K.100m made available to it in late 2012. The funds are not sitting idle. There are 95 projects approved by the Bougainville Executive Council in their 2012/2013 budget appropriation. The account is gradually being drawn down as more and more of these approved projects are actually funded and the current balance is nowhere near the original K.85million which was the opening balance. Because this is an on-going process, the Bougainville Administration has not yet been able to fully acquit these expenditures because the projects for which the funds are being applied are, in many instances, still in progress. In financial, accounting, monitoring and evaluation terms there are two forms of acquittals: (i) an expenditure report and, (ii) receipts based acquittals. Obviously, given the nature of the HIPs the form of acquittals agreed upon between both governments is an expenditure report backed up by an accounting/financial trail as to the utilisation of funds. An acquittal is not an audit report. This comes later in the process. The ABG is more than happy to note that there has been routine, regular and full quarterlyacquittals and reporting to the national government on the projects to date. There was an acquittal report submitted at the end of the first quarter of 2013. The second quarter acquittal report was delivered to relevant national government agencies at the 2nd Quarter Budget Review held in Manus, 27th July to 9th August, 2013. These reports were delivered to senior officials of the national departments of Treasury, Finance and Planning and Monitoring who are mandated to receive them. We are still not yet at the end of the third quarter of 2013, but this acquittal report will be delivered to the national government on time and through the regular process. The Minister of Bougainville Affairs is a part of the national government and if he requires confirmation of acquittals the opportunity to access them is readily available to him and his Department. The ABG is aware it has to acquit these funds in terms of its financial obligations to the National Government and will do so. There is complete transparency as to the utilisation of these funds. As a matter of public record, as of Friday, 20th September, 2013, the balance on the subsidiary Trust Account for the K.85million that was appropriated by the Bougainville House of Representatives for the 2012/2013 Budget was around K.26m. This demonstrates that the funding is being utilised according to approved budgetary criteria and being monitored by appropriate Bougainville officials. Regarding the 2013 HIP funding of a further K.100m, the agreed projects for which these funds would be utilised was agreed by joint Resolution at the 2012 JSB. The ABG and the national government, both,are unable to lift a single finger to proceed with these projects in the absence of the funds being released. Finally, the ABG wishes to make it clear that the decision to release or not release the funding for 2013 is entirely within the purview of the national government. The ABG is confident, however, that the national government will live up to its stated commitment made in 2011 and 2012, which was jointly agreed under the auspices of the JSB. However, if for any reason the national government is unwilling or unable to provide the agreed level of funding for 2013 then it should state this formally to the ABG and not make public statements which have no basis in facts. The ABG and the people of Bougainville would have expected the Minister of Bougainville Affairs and his Department would be advocates for Bougainville and not detractors. The ABG does not wish to air matters of a routine administrative nature between the national government and the ABG in the public, but it is forced to respond when inaccurate statements and assertions are made under parliamentary privileges where it has no recourse of response." Hon. Joel Banam, MHR ABG MINISTER for the Public Service 21/09/2013 |