The National | May 13, 2025
CONCERNS have been raised about the timely disbursement and acquittal of service improvement programme (SIP) grants, specifically under the provincial and district programmes.
East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, in an interview with The National, said it is a problem that some provincial and district agencies are not able to meet the March 31 deadline to submit acquittals.
“We either don’t receive them on time or not at all,” he said.
“While these funds are intended to support development projects, there are reports of delays, lack of transparency and potential misuse.”
Bird said no province has received its first-quarter funding for the year, raising concerns about the Government’s cash flow and accountability.
He said the delays and misuse of SIP funds can negatively impact service delivery in areas such as education, health, and infrastructure particularly in the rural areas.
“The provincial services improvement programme (PSIP) last year, for example, we received K7 million by November. So we held the joint district planning and budget priorities committee meeting in November to allocate the money for expenditure,” Bird said.
“Due to the issues with the integrated financial management system migration, we have not spent a single toea of that yet this year.
“It’s now May, and we have not received any money for 2025.
“For the provincial grants, the last time we received any funds was in May 2024. We still have K34 million outstanding,” he said.
He said to date, provincial or local level government grants have not been received in 12 months, even though they have been approved in the national budget.
Last week, the Implementation and Rural Development Department confirmed that 69 of 118 districts had submitted their acquittals, and highlighted the issues that caused provincial and districts administrations to submit their reports late.
Deputy secretary (programme and implementation) Gordon Wafimbi confirmed that many issues were being faced at the district and provincial levels, and funding delays was also one of the issues.
He said despite the delays, districts were still urged to submit acquittals of all funds utilised and balance carried forward.