TRUST ACCOUNTS OR DIS-TRUST ACCOUNTS.

TIME and again this newspaper has called for investigations into the abuse of monies held in trust accounts by government entities.

We are merely broadcasting concerns repeatedly raised by the Auditor General and by the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts.

Now a senior minister is calling for an investigation to find out where an amazing K9 billion has disappeared to from trust funds between 2006 and 2011.
Works and Implementation Minister Francis Awesa said last night that everybody is talking about corruption but no serious effort seems to be directed at recovering these billions of kina which could have
gone into important infrastructure projects in the country. We agree entirely with Awesa.

Task Force Sweep is doing a commendable job but it needs to do more. It needs to be supported with more resources. Indeed, it has also been our call for a merging of government entities which are doing virtually the same job but operating under different entities and different laws even.
The Task Force and the Fraud and Serious Crime squad for instance should be operating together.
So too should the Ombudsman Commission and the office of the Auditor General and the Public Accounts committee.

Many of these bodies are duplicating each other’s roles. Pooling resources together makes economic sense as well as getting the job done faster and more effectively.
At last count – well, there really hasn’t been any serious attempt at counting – there were over 2,500 trust accounts in the country.

Millions of kina, windfall money over and above the budget figures, have been parked those accounts.
These funds have been operated as petty cash accounts for the personal benefit of a few ministers and departmental heads.
A famous case was the Sepik Highways and Bridges Trust Account which contained K30 million.
K7 million disappeared without trace and the balance was spent on everything and anything but highways and bridges.

There are no records to verify where most of the funds were used. K100 million was allocated for Lae City roads. Contracts were awarded but much of the money disappeared and Lae City roads still need upgrading.

The whole government procurement system through the Central Supply and Tenders Board (CSTB) is susceptible to corruption, the Sweep team has announced.
This then is the Waigani black hole into which so much money has disappeared over so many years.
There are a number of cliques of individuals and corporations who have conspired time and again to get their hands on the country’s development funds.
Awesa said yesterday that he has uncovered instances where companies and individuals have been double dipping.

The government has been allowing billions to be  stolen from under its very nose,  tragically aided
and abetted by our own people. We have been told that the funds would be put into key infrastructure projects. So we ask the government: Where are the key impact projects that were funded by these astronomical sums parked outside the budget? Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has repeatedly pointed out that 2013 is the year of the implementation and the same is echoed by all his ministers.

For this government to be successful and deliver on  all its ambitious policies and programmes, it must close the black hole in Waigani which is sucking the  lifeblood out of our financial and budgetary processes.
As we have mentioned before the CSTB has to be restored to the Works and Implementation Department where it originally belonged. There ought to be an agency tasked solely to follow up on all infrastructure programmes of government. Such an authority should check on all projects. Ensure that there are no instances of double dipping.

Ensure that there are no outlandish variations to contracts. Ensure that all work is done to the best standards of design and workmanship. The authority should be aligned with  PNG public management acts and international standards of project management offices. Such a body has been proposed in the Infrastructure Development Authority.

It  will manage the end-to -end delivery from project budget management, project resource management, project governance management, budget cost over runs and project risks mitigation management, project delivery milestones management, reporting and documentation. As an independent office it should manage all   these in line with respective specialised and established  satellite project officers, managers, engineers and others within the respective departmental disciplines.

OP/ED