Tsiamalili calls for stronger legal and fiscal foundations in Bougainville budget

Bougainville Regional Member Peter Tsiamalili Jr has called for greater legal clarity, fiscal discipline and institutional safeguards in the Autonomous Bougainville Government’s Budget.

Tsiamalili said weaknesses in budget structure could expose leaders and public servants to unnecessary legal and accountability risks.

Speaking during the Budget debate, Tsiamalili said his remarks were made in a constructive and respectful spirit, acknowledging both Bougainville’s significant development needs and the fiscal constraints under which the ABG continues to operate as autonomy matures.

He said the core issue before the House was not the executive’s intentions or the scale of Bougainville’s needs, but whether the budget’s structural foundations provided sufficient legal certainty and protection for Parliament, the executive and the public service charged with implementing it.

“Budgets are not merely expressions of policy or aspiration, they are instruments of law,” Tsiamalili said, considering the way public funds are recognised, classified and appropriated determines whether decisions taken in good faith are also protected in law.

He raised concern that recent budget documents have tended to aggregate funds of different legal character including confirmed grants, conditional commitments, re-appropriations and anticipated sources under broad revenue headings. While this approach may be understandable in a transitional system, he cautioned it could create legal ambiguity when expenditure is appropriated as though all funds carry the same certainty and authority.

Tsiamalili reminded the House that Bougainville operates within a distinct constitutional and fiscal framework established under the Bougainville Peace Agreement, and remains heavily reliant on National Government transfers while developing its own-source revenue base. In that context, he said, legal clarity is not optional but essential.

He cautioned that unclear legal status of funds at the point of appropriation can later create uncertainty in interpretation, reporting and accountability, potentially exposing institutions and office-holders to avoidable risk and placing unnecessary pressure on the courts.

The Bougainville MP also said National Government funding to Bougainville is appropriated by the National Parliament and remains subject to constitutional requirements for accountability, audit and reporting. While acknowledging capacity constraints faced by the Administration, he said timely preparation, audit and tabling of financial statements remain fundamental to public trust and fiscal credibility.

Drawing on practices used in other jurisdictions, including the National Government, Tsiamalili suggested Bougainville could progressively strengthen its public financial management by adopting tools such as a Bougainville Fiscal Strategy, conservative revenue assumptions, clear cash-flow planning, explicit legal classification of revenue sources, and regular reporting and auditing in accordance with the law.

“The way forward need not be contentious,” he said, adding that such reforms would not weaken the executive but instead strengthen it, while also protecting Ministers, Members, public servants and Parliament itself.

Tsiamalili concluded by extending Christmas greetings to the Speaker, Members of the House, public servants and the people of Bougainville, as well as Papua New Guineans at home and abroad, expressing hope for peace, unity and collaborative work in the year ahead.