PNG’s National Planning Minister Charles Abel has confirmed that because of budget constraints, funding for the Church-State Partnership Programme in 2016 has been cut to 3.2 million US dollars from about 8 million.
A church representative says very little of last year’s allocation was paid out anyway.
Church-led health services are already being strained at a time when Western Province communities are struggling with a prolonged drought.
A Catholic Health Co-ordinator in Kiunga, Sister Anna Sanginawa, said the church is running out of drugs which it has to buy with its own funds from pharmaceutical companies in Port Moresby.
“That’s why we have to find money elsewhere to get the money to buy drugs from the pharmacies and they are expensive, you know. The pharmacies also are putting up high costs.”
She said the church’s ability to keep helping people get the treatment they need is severely affected by the lack of government assistance.
Sister Anna adds that many communities in drought-impacted regions of Western Province are still waiting for the government relief assistance.
The health cuts are part of an overall reduction in Church-State Partnership Programme.
EMTV reports that a meeting took place in Port Moresby on Thursday to review implementation reports from 2014 to 2015 where some partners raised issues of funding.
Archbishop Clyde Igara, of the Anglican Church, said they did not receive any of their allocated funding.
“We must have waited too long to cash the education cheque because it bounced back by the time we tried to cash it,” he said while adding that the health component of their funding did not come through at all.
The meeting also heard that the secretariat that administers the programmes has not been receiving the funds it needed.
Currently, the secretariat is hosted by the United Church and they have used over K89,000 for operation costs.
Kali Sete, the United Church’s Development Secretary said this is straining an already limited amount of money they have and they will not be able to continue after May if they don’t get funding from the government to support the Secretariat.
Abel told EMTV News that all the funds that the United Church have used will be reimbursed and that the Anglican Church will finally receive their allocated funds.
Source
- radionz.co.nz
- emtv.com.
- Image: nfhsdp.org
