Governor of Central Province Robert Agarobe on Friday presented over K3million of IDG funds to the people of the LNG impacted villages in the Hiri LLG area.
Governor Agarobe made this presentation in a series of cheques handed over to ward members of the LNG impacted wards of the Hiri LLG, which also included a K1m check to the Hiri Special Purposes Authority, an authority set up within the affected area that is aimed at driving projects and programs within the local area.
With the presentation of the Infrastructure Development Grants, Governor Agarobe reiterated to the ward members the importance of having a set plan in place which complements the provincial plan set out by the Central Provincial Government to drive its provincial economy.
“The idea behind this is that in line with our plan to drive our provincial economy, we have targeted certain areas with our main pillars being agriculture, tourism and sports,” said Governor Agarobe.
“In handing this money now directly to the ward members for the first time, we are empowering the ward members at the village level.”
“When we tell them that we want them to have their ward development plans, they are now empowered with the funds.”
Governor Agarobe further encouraged the ward members to spend their allocated funds in line with their ward development plans and to carefully manage their undertakings.
“Money that belongs to the people will go to the people.”
“All we, as a government, are doing now is putting the structures in place and it is our job now to regulate them.”
“We’re giving all the powers back to them to start doing things at their level but we expect them to fall in line with the provincial plans that we are pushing.”