THE Opposition wants the Government to explain the K156 billion it had spent since 2019, while people struggled to access basic services, says Opposition Leader James Nomane.
He was responding to the number of people who waited to board the Chinese navy medical ship Silk Road Ark in Port Moresby for medical treatment last week.
“We can see the sad picture of mothers carrying infants, the elderly, and the chronically ill queuing up to receive healthcare from a Chinese medical ship,” Nomane said.
“This is the result of debt-driven fiscal paralysis. Broken hospitals, empty medicine shelves and underpaid health workers are what we can see throughout the country, even after K156 billion was spent since 2019 by the Government.”
Nomane said that the Government had appropriated and spent K156 billion through the seven national budgets passed by Parliament since 2019.
“Approximately K16.1 billion was spent in 2019, K17.6 billion in 2020, K19.6 billion in 2021, K23.4 billion in 2022, K24.6 billion in 2023, K27.3 billion in 2024, and K28.4 billion in 2025,” he said.
“Where is this K156 billion? The prime minister himself has also confirmed that about K56 billion has been unaccounted for.
“Yet the Government continues to pretend like the people’s pain is someone else’s problem.”
Deputy Opposition Leader and Hiri-Koiari MP Keith Iduhu called on the Government to ensure an equal distribution of funds for all provinces to development their own health sectors.
