29/10/2025
By Lorraine Francis |PNG SUN|
You are weaponising the National Budget to marginalize the people of Chuave and entire Chimbu province, Chuave MP James Nomane made this statement this afternoon when asking a series of questions in Parliament directed to Prime Minister James Marape.
During Question Time, Mr Nomane took PM Marape to task over government funding allocations, claiming Simbu Province and Chuave District have been unfairly treated in budget disbursements.
Mr Nomane said the Prime Minister had recently admitted that in the last six years K56 billion of public taxpayers’ money had been spent with no results, calling it a total indictment on the Marape-Rosso Government.
“My question specifically is for the people of Chimbu and Chuave — the Simbu Provincial Government has received K8.8 million in functional grants for 2025. It’s due K34 million. That means that in the last three quarters of the year, nine months, this government has only given the Simbu Provincial Government 25 percent of what it is due, and this is unacceptable,” Mr Nomane told Parliament.
He criticised the government for failing to deliver funding commitments to Simbu and Chuave.
“I’ve heard so much lip service in here. You’ve been playing around with the people of Simbu and treating us like second-class citizens. I just want to know from the Prime Minister — when is Chuave going to receive the full DSIP?, and that’s a crummy K10 million. We’ve been completely marginalised because this government has weaponised the budget. When is Simbu going to receive the full functional grant? When is Karamui getting the road and all these promises that we’ve been promised by the Marape government? We Simbus are not second-class citizens, and we want equity in the budget and honesty in implementation,” he said.
Mr Nomane also called on the Treasurer and Finance Ministers to publish the expenditure records.
“I also want the Treasurer and Finance Minister to publish the expenditure that the Prime Minister had said Chuave had , so that the country can see what districts have received what funding of all this money that has just vaporized,” he added.
In response, Prime Minister Marape defended his government’s record, saying the government has been fair to all districts and provinces across the country.
“I want to place on record, since six years in a row, this government has tried our utmost best to be fair to all districts and all provinces right across the country. If we were not fair this year, the Chuave District would not have received K7 million transferred to the district to date,” Mr Marape said.
He added that opposition members have also received their share of DSIP allocations.
“All members on the opposition side know also that they have received a minimum of 50 percent of all DSIP allocations. Some have received infrastructure grant components, some have also received Kina -for-Kina policy grants. So long as they are complying with government policy under MTDP IV, then those grants are also transferred to those provinces or districts,” PM Marape explained.
The Prime Minister also clarified that the K56 billion figure he mentioned earlier referred to overall funds transferred to various levels of government and institutions since 2019.
“The K56 billion that I made reference to doesn’t include recurrent components. It talks about the quantum transfer of money to the districts, the provinces, and the sectors, departments and statutory bodies since 2019. We are not a government that hides disbursements. We’re being transparent, telling the country how much we have transferred. While some sectors deliver work, some sectors need to fully be transparent,” he said.
He further assured the people of Chimbu that they were not being marginalised.
“I want to tell the nation and the people of Simbu that you have not been systematically victimised. The Finance Minister and Treasurer are compelled to put out in public how much has been transferred to all districts and provinces, including the disbursements to Simbu and all provincial governments in terms of recurrent, not just this year but last year and earlier years since 2022,” Mr Marape told Parliament.
In a Point of Order, the Member for Chuave reiterated that his district had only received K7 million, while other districts had received more than K50 or K100 million.
The Prime Minister emphasized that while some districts might have received higher allocations, the expectation remains that all districts must deliver results with the funds provided.
“The amount they are receiving might not be more, but we expect results from the tune of K7 million,” Mr Marape said.
Meanwhile, PM Marape said his government has released K50 million for the Karamui road project.
