MEMBER OF the Western Provincial Assembly for ward 18 in South Rendova, George Solingi Lilo, has questioned the ruling Western Provincial government over the province’s continuous borrowing of funds from Western Province investment Corporation (WPIC).
Contributing in the budget deliberations last week, Mr Lilo, who is also a former Premier of Western Province, said with new revenue coming into the province from South Pacific Oil Limited (SPOL) and others, the province has enough money on the table to deliver its services to the people.
“But why are we continuing to borrow from WPIC?
“This is clear evidence which shows that we are not managing our limited resources efficiently and effectively to enable us to take control to improve our fiscal discipline,” he said.
Mr Lilo said the functions that devolve around schedule 3 and schedule 4 of the provincial government Act of 1997 remain the same.
“The province’s revenue has increased dramatically, and I must congratulate the government for that.
“If the devolve functions that give us the legitimacy for us to spend on those functions remain the same, and our revenue is increased, why is it that we don’t have enough?
“And that is the question that has been haunting me,” he said.
He encouraged the Western provincial government to stop borrowing money from WPIC and focus on its revenue.
“Our programmes must also be factored base on the criteria of the revenues that we have, or we are yet to collect,” he stressed.
The Western Provincial government has passed a budget of $25,188,252 during their budget sitting last week.
Meanwhile, Mr Solingi Lilo said one of the fundamental conditions of putting the province’s finance in order is to restore fiscal health, and for economic recovery, so that all the people of Western province would enjoy lasting prosperity.
He said the strong message carried by the provincial Minister of Finance during his budget speech last week barks back at the government side of the house due to unnecessary spending of the previous budget.
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