NATIONAL Pandemic Response controller David Manning says he has forwarded the independent report on the funding of Papua New Guinea’s Coronavirus (Covid-19) emergency response to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee for further investigation.
Manning, who is also the Police Commissioner, said the report cites minimal accountability for expenditure by some international partners, with this failure being further compromised by these partners refusing to align their activities with directions from the Government.
“I requested this independent report to be conducted in order to provide greater transparency on the funds being expended as part of the Covid-19 emergency response, particularly as this relates to the National Control Centre (NCC),” Manning said in a statement yesterday.
“Contributions to the Covid-19 emergency response have come from a range of sources, and have subsequently been spent by a number of Government and foreign organisations.
“The recipients of the largest donations were international non-governmental organisations such as the World Health Organisation, World Vision and United Nations agencies such as Unicef (international children’s fund).
“The Papua New Guinea Government also received funds through health programmes such as the Covax advanced market commitment and direct support to hospitals and PHAs (public health authorities).”
While investigators were able to identify amounts of donated funds, Manning said they were unable to identify whether funds were spent in accordance with their intended purpose.
“Investigators found that some organisations have been reluctant, or even declined to participate in the review,” he said.
“In particular, and as reported in the past, a number of UN agencies are attempting to hide behind foreign rules for the PNG funds they have been spending.
“Certain UN agencies claim that only adhere to what they call a ‘single audit principle’ which they claim gives exclusive access to the book to the United National Board of Audit.
“I have stated before that this hiding behind diplomatic status, and not being transparent with funding that has been donated to or loaned by the people of PNG is not acceptable.
“I am most respectful of the UN overall, and very much appreciate the work they are doing in PNG.
“But this appreciation does not absolve these UN agencies from adhering to transparency and accountability requirements in our country.”
The report made the point that Manning was not accountable for funds disbursed by other departments and agencies, for which Manning said he was taking it upon himself to find out what was happening with the funds in question.
“While I do not sign for the expenditure of funds outside of the NCC, acting on behalf of the Government, I am demanding that this information is revealed to our people,” he said. “This review identified approximately K754.8 million in donor contributions, which is significantly less than the K877.02mil reported in the UNDP Covid-19 donor tracker.
As of December, a total of 44 donors were known to have provided K1.174bil to 24 organisations.
The investigation and subsequent report by FTI Consulting, was commissioned by the Controller in December 2021, and broadened in March to review donor contributions to the PNG Covid-19 emergency response.
The review has been submitted to the Public Accounts Committee and the Office of the Auditor-General for further investigation.
Comments
Post a Comment