The National

MORE than K830 million in Government funds allocated to provinces and districts remain unaudited, according to the department of Implementation and Rural Development monthly report. 

It blames this on the lack of proper oversight and accountability on the Provincial Service Improvement Programme (PSIP) and the District Service Improvement Programme (DSIP) funding. 

Since 2018, 163 reports are yet to be provided for assessment. They include 74 DSIP and 19 PSIP reports yet to be submitted. 

They include Government grants for projects, provincial and district MPs’ discretionary funds of K5 million and K10 million under the SIP allocations.

 Prime Minister James Marape said that as far as the PSIP and DSIP were concerned, the Government had honored its part by allocating funding to the provinces and districts. 

It is up to the MPs to ensure that the services reach the people. 

The mandated closing date was March 31. 

The enforcement of that deadline is for the Ombudsman Commission (OC) to exercise. It should work with the department on compliance. 

The OC’s concern raised on its website and in public media announcements says that without acquittals, it is difficult to determine the manner in which the projects have been procured and whether they are public in nature with maximum public benefit. 

However, to date no action or penalties have been imposed on provinces and districts which have not complied with the OC’s demand for timely reports. 

Deputy Secretary Programme and Implementation Gordon Wafimbi, said the department urged districts and provinces to submit acquittals as and when they could, even if they had missed the deadline. 

“Some districts whose members have died will have challenges to access funds, administration or high turnover for district administrators so they are not able to coordinate the reporting aspects. There are a host of reasons,” he said.