Development indicators for Southern Highlands Province are melancholy

A lot of people have raised concerns for developments indicators particularly for Southern Highlands Province (SHP). I note that SHP and Western province are generating considerable amount of funds from royalties (Western 50% and SHP 25% of revenues). These are additional to government grants and other revenues generated from fees, VAT and equity, shares, etc...

Yet both provinces featured prominently in the district development index – among the least developed districts in PNG. Most of the highlands districts including Enga featured strongly in those poverty index although Enga seem to overspent on education, particularly for higher education neglecting all other areas including primary education.

SHP, Enga and Western province have opportunities many of our provinces do not have and it seems those massive revenue generated are not put to priority sectors such as health, education, agriculture and infrastructure development and heavily spent on other non-essential areas. I note that for Enga and SHP over 300% of expenditure is spent on administration alone with health and education receiving the lowest chunk of provincial budgets.

The deal is done but only time would tell what happens thereafter

I also note that most of the provinces fail to use funds allocated for core service delivery areas and those funds are often lost in the carry over processes in the new financial year. While, central level agencies are often get blamed for poor performance, provinces and districts often go into hiding. The district administrators are key people often forgotten who should be held responsible for failing districts. I know a few that facilitate corrupt MPs and often get away with it.

Overall, ENB seems to have better balance of spending over priority areas and generally do well in development indicators at district level. I think we should learn from such experiences particularly for provinces that are generating a lot of income through the various resource booms while we have the opportunity.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is projected to raise US$32 billion of 30 years in revenue but if the core service delivery areas do not receive much needed attention, PNG will be tipped upside down with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer every step of the way.