BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
CENTRAL Islands Province (CIP) Provincial Government ‘Assembly programmes’ resuming saw the passing of the ‘Budget’ last Thursday, roughly about $10M.
Speaker of CIP Hon Francis Moah speaking to Isles Media today said on the ‘Recurrent Budget’ they have around $6M plus and on the ‘Development Budget’ they have more than $3M.
They managed to pass the Budget on Thursday and sent it over on Friday to the Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS).
“The new government is now in place, the new Executive has come in, and everyone has come together at the sitting closing last Thursday before the end of the month. We managed to reach the date where the deadline was put by the mother ministry,” said Moah.
It is understood that the next ‘Budget’ sitting for the CIP Assembly should be around March 2023 and the CIP Provincial Assembly should be dissolved in June next year.
“However, if the ‘Parliamentary deferment’ comes in place and because of the simultaneous election having both the national and provincial governments to hold elections at the same time due to expenses involved, it looks like the deferment will affect provinces too,” said Moah.
Meanwhile, six new provincial government Ministers under CIP’s Provincial Assembly had sworn in on Monday this week.
Under the current new CIP Premier leadership, the new ministers are Deputy Premier Hon James Galini who is the Minister of Education and Human Resource Development and also for Youths Women and Children Affairs, Hon John Kara the Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism and Culture, Hon Humphrey Salopuka the Minister for Lands and Forestry, Mines and Energy, Hon James Kaka the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon Kevin Liu the Minister for Finance, Investment and Planning and the sixth is the Premier himself Hon Polycarp Galaigu, who is the Minister of Health, Police and Security.
According to the CIP Assembly, there are currently six Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPAs) under the Executive, two backbenchers and four non-Executive members in the Provincial Public Accounts Committee (PPAC).
The PPAC members were also appointed on Tuesday this week and they are Hon Stanley Manetiva (former Premier) for Ward 4 at Tulaghi, Hon Stanley Palumala for Ward 6, Southeast Ngella, Hon Edgar Tarai for Ward 7 at Northeast Ngella and Hon Celestine Tasalu for Ward 13, South Savo.
