New Ireland’s parliamentarians have been urged to upgrade the Royal PNG Constabulary and Correctional Services accommodation.
Chief Ombudsman Richard Pagen and senior staff from the Ombudsman Commission made this request following their visit to Kavieng yesterday.
They further asked the MPs to extend the lockup in Kavieng to avoid containing men, women and juveniles in the same cells.
The visit to Kavieng follows their trip to Manus on Monday.
The Member for Kavieng, on behalf of the Kavieng District Development Authority, was delighted to host the meeting held at the Nusa Island retreat.
All three members of parliament were invited to attend but the Namatanai MP conveyed his apologies as he was out of the country, while the governor was not present.
“I know that both my parliamentary colleagues would agree with me that we are keen to resolve the immediate housing issues in the law and order sector in Kavieng and funding really, should not be an issue,” Ian Ling-Stuckey said.
He suggested a way forward was to assess how much PIP funding was available from the departments of police and CS for housing in New Ireland.
Ling-Stuckey further asked provincial police commander, Felix Nebanat, to provide their respective offices accurate costings so they could then identify the availability of funds from their respective NIPG and DDA budgets, including PSIP/DSIP funds.
“I am encouraged to learn today that the visit by the OC delegation to the NGI region is a new initiative wherein, rather than investigate a complaint on housing which would be costly and time consuming, instead, you have consulted with key stakeholders to find a solution.”
He said this new approach by the OC would make its interventions more relevant and he was confident, elected leaders would welcome it with open arms.
(Chief Ombudsman, Richard Pagen, met with Kavieng MP and Treasurer, Ian Ling-Stuckey, together with provincial administrator Lamiller Pawut, PPC Felix Nebanat and Kavieng DDA CEO, David Lens, at Nusa, Kavieng, on January 5th)