Transcript
RAYMOND MASONO:Over the years the national government has continued to fail us, by not giving us our grants on time. Sometimes we get the grants very close to the end of the year and it doesn't help because you can't plan to spend the money properly, when the whole year you have to wait and all of a sudden there is a windfall if you like, at the end of the year.
JAMIE TAHANA: How much money is Bougainville missing out on because of this?
RM: Well the ABG has, we have a formula which we believe that the national government is also not following as required under the Bougainville Peace Agreement. It is a contentious issue. We have our own formula and the national government seems to have its own formula. We have not agreed on a compromise and the ABG has decided to seek a separate court interpretation of the Bougainville constitution and also the Bougainville Peace Agreement in regards to the formula. So we are now starting the process to ensure that the supreme court interprets the two formulas - one as posed by the ABG and the other postulated by the national government. We have already started the process. We've already engaged one of the most prominent lawyers in PNG to take up the case with the Supreme Court of PNG.
JT: And when do you hope to have that before the court?
RM: Hopefully very soon as we would like to sort out this matter as soon as possible. If at all possible before the formation of the new government so that as soon as the new government comes up after the election we should be able to discuss what the Supreme Court interpretation is. According to our formula the national government owes us more than 800 million kina of which the ABG has been underpaid since 2010.
JT: With the current payment issue with not receiving any money this year, what effect has this had on Bougainville?
RM: It is affecting the service delivery to our people by the government. It's causing frustration among the people because they think the ABG is not delivering, where in fact it is the national government that has failed the ABG.
JT: What services are you not able to provide?
RM: There are a lot of areas, for example, who are not accessing health services because of lack of medicine. There are also areas that aren't accessible because feeder roads cannot reach them. And there are other areas for example law and order. We need to make the police services more effective but we can't do that if we don't have the resources to properly resource the Bougainville police service. So all these services rely heavily almost exclusively on the grants from the national government.
JT: Have you spoken to the national government in the past few months? Kind of what are they saying about these problems?
RM: Our president has met with the Prime Minister on several occasions over the past two months. The promise is usually the same, 'we will give it to you,' but it does not really happen the way the PM tells our president. And so it continues to be a contentious issue and we are trying to solve it through that Supreme Court interpretation once and for all.
