Post Courier | Editorial | March 12 2025

Catholic Church Archbishop Sir John Ribat dropped a bombshell yesterday. 

He took corruption by politicians and public servants head-on. 

But it appears the people that were targeted - the politicians who run the country - did not flinch at Sir John's suggestion that police should be given special powers to arrest MPs who are found to be corrupt while serving in public office. 

They went about business as usual. They seem to have developed thick-skin immunity to the corruption octopus.

Cathy Tukne

Transparency and accountability are fundamental to effective governance, especially in the management of public funds. In Papua New Guinea, District Development Authorities (DDAs) play a critical role in delivering essential services and infrastructure to districts. However, concerns over mismanagement and declining service quality have prompted the launch of the DDA Watch website by ACT NOW! 

Post Courier | Editorial | 3rd March 2025

We have 108 members of parliament. There are 22 provincial members and the rest are Open members and the Prime Minister heads the executive government, which comprises 37 members. 

Cathy Tukne

New Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) figures, released on 11 February 2025 by Transparency International, highlight Papua New Guinea’s failure to deal with widespread corruption. PNG is classified as having a ‘high perceived risk of corruption’ with ‘no meaningful progress’ in anti-corruption efforts. PNG is the worst ranked country in the Pacific region and ranks 127th out of 180 countries globally.

The National |11 February, 2025

THE Ombudsman Commission has warned provincial administrators, provincial administration workers, chief executive officers and employees of district development authorities that it is illegal to operate outside their designated locations.

A statement from Chief Ombudsman Richard Pagen, Ombudsman Tabitha Suwae, and acting Ombudsman Kevin Kepore said: “Operating outside the designated location is improper as there are legally defined administrative boundaries within which these public servants must serve.

ACT NOW!

The 2025 National Government budget has seen an increased of budget allocation for district support improvement program (DSIP).

This is despite the fact that DDAs are lacking transparency and accountability in their operations and expenditure.

ACT NOW! analysis has shown that there is lack of DDA contact details, DDAs lack proper development plans and bad records of acquitting funds.

Source: Post Courier November 29th 2024

The 2024 National Budget Lockup today allocated a significant K960 million to the District Services Improvement Program (DSIP), marking a substantial increase in funding for district development.

This allocation will provide K10 million to each of 96 districts in the country.

National Planning and Monitoring Secretary, Mr. Koney Samuel, highlighted that the government is committed to further expanding district development funds with the addition six new districts will be coming up.

Wantok Nuispepa | Novemba 21-27, 2024 |Pg 9

Wanpela wok painim bilo komuniti edvokesi grup ACT NOW i sowim planti bilong ol Distrik Divelopmen Atoriti (DDA) long Papua Niugini i popaia long putim aut ol kontek infomesen bio ol ples klia. Dispela i pasin gutpela gavaens wok, akauntabiliti, na sevis i go ol ples. 

Cathy Tukne | Act Now! PNG

A concerning analysis by ACT NOW has revealed that almost all District Development Authorities (DDAs) in Papua New Guinea are failing to make crucial contact information available, hindering governance, accountability, and service delivery.

Despite each District receiving K20 million annually for service and infrastructure improvements, as of July 2024, the analysis reveals most DDA’s do not have a named Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and lack an email address, postal address and phone number or website.

The National | October 14,2024 

Morobe Governor Luther Wenge has pledged to bring back government services to the Sialum and Siassi local level government (LLG) areas of Tawae- Siassi. 

Wenge visited the two LLGs and saw that there was government absence at LLG stations. 

He highlighted that the LLG stations were the face of a districts, which would show that the district development authority (DDA) was working with the people and delivering services to them. 

Source: The National Editorial

WEST New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel recently raised concerns over the Government’s delays and shortfalls in the disbursement of essential funds needed for development.

The outspoken leader of the province, which is one of the main economic contributors to the country through its large oil palm industry, has constantly called  for the timely disbursement of money from the national level to the sub-national level.

Wantok Newspaper | September 25- October 2, 2024

Long taim gavman i wok long pamim bikpela mani tru i go insait long wan wan Distrik, i no 
gat transperensi long pasin ol i yusim  dispela pablik mani.

Source: Post Courier Editorial- Tuesday 1st October 2024

The national budget provides K2.4 billion to the Members of Parliament to take to their districts every year to spend on development projects.

In the districts today, there is nothing on the ground to show for that money and to add salt to the wound, we do not have any reports to tell us how or where that money was used.

Any fool who is not familiar with how the government system in PNG works will see clearly that something is definitely not right.

Cathy Tukne | Act Now! PNG

While the government has been dramatically increasing the amount of funding pumped directly into each District, there is an appalling lack of transparency about how those public funds are being used.

As of July 2024, analysis of media reporting by ACT NOW, DDA Watch reveals just 24 out of 96 Districts have lodged their financial acquittals for 2022 or 2023 and none of those acquittals are publicly available.  This is despite each District now being given K20 million a year in service and infrastructure improvement grants.

The National | Dylan Murray | 27.08.2024

The Auditor-General's Office cannot inspect how provinces and district use funds to allocate them without financial statements and reports, the office says. 

Deputy auditor-general (corporate affairs) Albert Kimis said the AG's office has not conducted a proper audit of provincial (PSIP) and district (DSIP) services improvement programs (PSIP)(DSIP) in years.  

He told The National that most provincial government audits had been in arrears for the last three to five years.