MINISTER for Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS) Hon Rollen Seloso says that the Government is doing its utmost best to bring changes to the lives of our people.
Minister Seloso highlighted this during his 2021 Appropriation Bill 2021 debate speech in Parliament this week.
Mr Seloso was responding to statements expressed by the Leader of Opposition that the Government is not doing enough in rural communities in the provinces.
Minister Seloso said this statement is unfair and not good enough especially when the Government had allocated millions of dollars through the MPGIS towards infrastructure development in rural communities.
“The CDF for instance is a funding purposely allocated for our people. It is a Government funding for our people. Therefore, if we do not see tangible changes in our respective constituencies and communities then maybe we (leaders) are the ones not doing enough to help our own people,” Mr Seloso said.
Minister Seloso further enlightened that the allocation for his Ministry in terms of its development budget is $ 31.5 Million for the course of this year 2021.
He said from this amount, an amount of $30 Million is allocated purposely for the Provincial Capacity Development Fund or the PCDF.
The Provincial Government Minister said the PCDF is now operational in our Provinces and its impact is undeniably felt stronger in our provincial communities.
He said that since the inception of the programme in 2008, our communities have enjoyed more than 1,300 infrastructure projects, creating employment of than 8,000 jobs.
“With the annual support of $30M from the Solomon Islands Government, more than $300M have already been spent on the project since 2008, with a majority of infrastructure investments in the health, education and Administration sector,” he said.
Therefore, Minister Seloso said the statement expressed that the Government is not doing anything is total biased.
—PMO
