A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on Tuesday, October 10 will enable the transfer of the first of over six hundred personnel and the component budget for personnel emoluments and goods and services to the Bougainville Public Service.
For this initial phase of the program, it is the moving of Village Court and Land Mediation officials from DJAG and the administration officers from the Magisterial Services of PNG to Bougainville.
The MoU was signed between the Department of Justice & Attorney General, the Magisterial Services of PNG, the Department of Personnel Management and the Department of Justice and Legal Services of the Autonomous Bougainville Government.
The signing is a reflection of the hard work of the national law and justice agencies in Bougainville, which have collectively worked together since May 2021 following the signing of the Sharp Agreement, towards meeting the needs and aspirations of the people of Bougainville under the ‘Shaping Bougainville Justice Program.’
Chairman of the National Coordinating Mechanism (NCM) and Justice Secretary, Dr Eric Kwa, said this was a success for the law and justice Sector as they have worked hard to achieve this outcome since 2021.
“We’ve progressed very well. This signing will now enable the Treasury and Finance departments to easily migrate the funding.
“The MoU signing will facilitate and allow the national departments, that is, the Department of Personnel Management; and Department of Treasury and the Department of Finance to transfer Personnel Emoluments Budget and the Goods & Services Budget, over to Bougainville,” said Dr Kwa.
Dr Kwa says this will detach the National Government’s Personal Emoluments Budget and the Good & Services Budget which is annually allocated to the Department of Justice & Attorney General and the Magisterial Services. These two components of the budget will now be included in the Bougainville Public Service; this means there will be a minus to the National level budget and an increase to the Bougainville budget.
Meanwhile, Secretary for Department of Personnel Management, Taies Sansan congratulated the national departments of the law and justice sector in working with the Bougainville Government in making this a success. She said the signing was timely and she reaffirmed DPM’s continuous commitment to support this sector.
Secretary for Justice and Legal Services and Principal Advisor to ABG, Kearnneth Nanei also shared the same sentiments and thanked everyone who was involved.
“This is a very significant milestone in terms of implementing the autonomous arrangements in Bougainville and it only happened because of the cooperation from the national agencies,” he said.