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

Executive officer Tony Miva and administration officer Janet Walum made the donation on behalf of the acting secretary.

At the hand-over, the archdiocesan finance manager, Ray Ramirez, thanked the National Planning and Monitoring Department. He said the department had been a partner with the archdiocese of Rabaul for quite a long time now.

Mr Miva reiterated that the department has a partnership program in place between the church and the State.

He said the setting up of an office at the Vunapope was a part of this partnership carried out under the former secretary, Joseph Lelang.

It was in line with the current government's interest in embarking on service delivery in partnership with private sector including non government organisations and churches.

"The office here was set up for that reason that we were able to build up the capacity with the planning division in the province under the provincial government and also to collect and collate the raw data from the province in terms of health and education. The updated data helps us to ensure that we meet what the province requires when we give assistance and funding."

The Post Courier reports that the department's regional officers from the Kokopo, Madang and Simbu were recalled back to Port Moresby after the current acting secretary said it was an expensive exercise.

"But from this paper's observation in covering planning and development stories including observations in East New Britain technical planning and monitoring, expertise in the province has been stepping up," the newspaper says.

"We were not able to confirm if other similar arrangements were made to close the other regional offices.

"At the moment, under the current O'Neill-Dion Government's directives, the Office of Rural Development is expected to create regional offices and these offices are yet to be established."

Source

• The Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
• Post Courier
• Image: www.devinfo.org

National Planning Minister Charles Abel will table a report on the Social Development Plan or Church State Partnership Program where K120 million has been spent with nothing to show on the ground.

He will present the Report when Parliament resumes next week Tuesday.

The abuse of public funded programs has been a major concern to the O'Neill-Dion government with Department of National Planning putting in place measures including reviewing of government programs.

Minister Abel did not give details of the disaster in the church state partnership program but will do so in his Report to Parliament.

"I have met with the Church partners under the Church Partnership Program last week after finalising the historical report on this program, and they will report back this week on propositions to re-engage with government after the disaster of the previous programme."

"We will be providing through this programme funding to support health and education services through the churches in particular."

Source

• The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea/Post Courier
• Image: HDRcreme.com