By EDDIE OSIFELO
MALAITA Province has received the biggest portion of the Provincial Capacity Development Fund (PCDF) since 2014.
Originally, the Provincial Government Strengthening Programme (PGSP) under the Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening has delivered 1500 projects, totaled up to $500 million since 2008.
Minister Rollen Seleso said since 2014, the PCDF allocations for all provinces totaled to $350 million.
He said out of this, Malaita has received $63 million, which is 18 percent of the whole allocation.
“Most of the provinces received below 10 percent,” he said.
Seleso said out of the 1500 projects since 2008, Malaita has received nearly 200 projects, costing nearly $80 million in terms of the formular and distributions the province has received so much funds and projects in comparison with other provinces.
“The benefit of the projects is obvious and has real impacts in the lives of the people in the communities.
“It is obvious the PCDF changes the physical features of all our provincial headquarters. It has built fishery centres and water supply for certain communities,” he added.
Seleso said a community hall of a village in Ambu near Auki is now complete and ready to officially handed over to Leader of Opposition Mathew Wale’s community in early next year.
He said this project costs around $1.5 million and will benefit the community including schools and church administration as well.
“It must be noted that the community in Ambu has struggled for more than 40 years to have such infrastructure, but thanks to the PCDF, the people of Ambu will now benefit from this programme,” he said.
He said there was another project funded under the PCDF in Fataleka in Ward 5 which was officially handed over to the community already.
Under the PCDF, the projects funded comes in many forms including classrooms, staff house, clinics, small jetties, small bridges, fishery centres, copra shades, storage facility, women resource centre, provincial government office, Provincial Assembly chambers, markets, and the list goes on and on.
Seleso said according to the design of the programme, it is performance based.
“The more you perform better, the more you receive in terms of funding and more projects.
“The formular of the project is designed in such a way where population play a decision in this funding,” he said.
Seleso said it is obvious that the province with bigger population such as Guadalcanal, Western Province and Malaita Province benefited a lot from the distribution of this PCDF.
In addition, Seleso said because of its attractive model, the PCDF has attracted donors including European Union, World Bank and agencies such as UNDP, UNICEF, UNCDF, and other friends including DFAT and Japan.
“Negotiations are currently underway and we are grateful, there are potential that the PCDF will be funded with our partner with about $200 million USD for the next five years.
“The beneficiary includes health, education, and productive sectors as the redirection policy of the government,” he said.
Seleso said more focus will be on the economic growth and productive sector in the next five years.
“We will ensure provinces, communities and individuals engage more in economic and income generating activities,” he added.
