MOMIS: BOUGAINVILLEANS MUST ABIDE BY PEACE AGREEMENT
By Tanya Lahies
ABG President Hon Chief Dr. John Momis has called on the people of Bougainville to abide by the principles of the Bougainville Peace Agreement as we approach the referendum target date in June 2019.
President Momis made this appeal today in a press conference following the recent threats made by a group of service providers and ex combatants who have staged their frustrations about over-due payments owed to them by the government.
The service providers had issued threats to the government about shutting down government offices, which did not go down well with the President.
“We must stick to the peace agreement and follow the rule of law and not take the law into our hands” Momis said.
“The National Government, United Nations and most importantly, the international community is watching us closely and as we embark to the Bougainville referendum, which is just next year, our actions become very critical. They might even say that we are not even ready if we continue to take the law into our hands,” said Momis.
Momis urged for the public servants, politicians, ex combatants and ordinary civilians to stick to the peace agreement for it is the road map to determining the region’s political future.
“If we don’t follow the principles of good governance, all our hard work will come to nothing.”
A very frustrated Momis said that it was not the ABG’s fault that it was not able to pay its debts owed to the service providers and explained that the government was not able to meet the payments owed to the service providers because there was no funding being made available from the national government.
“We are having difficulty because the national government hasn’t given any funding although it has made many promises to do so and we have asked the national government many times.”
The President said that, with respect to the due process and rule of law, there will be checks and balances made and all claims of non-payment or overdue invoices by service providers would go through the screening process and any illegitimate invoices would be stripped off.
Momis reiterated that, payments would be made once this due process has taken place and we have received funding allocation from the national government.
[ Back to News ]
