The question pertaining to funds allocated to districts and provinces to celebrate the 50th Independence Anniversary of Papua New Guinea (PNG) was raised during question time in parliament this morning in Port Moresby city. West Sepik Provincial Member, Tony Wouwou, directed this question to the new Finance Minister, Thomas Opa, enquiring if the National Government will be giving additional funding apart from the K50 million already allocated in the 2025 national budget, for the celebrations. Minister Opa said the government through the Finance Department has given Financial Instructions to District Development Authorities (DDAs) and Provincial Governments to use K1 million from their DSIP and PSIP funds to mark the celebrations on September 16th. He also explained that the K50 million is for the national events and will be used by the National Events Council for that purpose; however, he did not clearly state if this funding will also be distributed to the districts and provinces as support or whether there will be a supplementary budget introduced where supporting funds can come from to go towards staging the 50th Independence Celebrations throughout the country. That explanation did not go down well with the Member for North Fly, James Donald who raised a supplementary question seeking clarification on whether the use the K1 million from the development funds for celebration purpose, is not breaking the law. Minister Opa responded that it’s not illegal to do that. “The Department of Finance through the (Finance) Secretary, has issued the Financial Instructions for the Chairman of DDAs and provincial governments to allocate K1 million in their budget, making it legal for DSIP funds and PSIP funds to allocate K1 million,” the further minister explained. The Member for North Fly strongly believes that these development funds for the provinces and districts should not be touched for the 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations. It should be used to bring about the much-needed services like health, education and law and order in the provinces and districts.