Minister for Treasury, Ian Ling-Stuckey, says the Bank of Papua New Guinea will undergo a total review in 2020.
Minister Ling-Stuckey responded to a series of questions asked by the Governor for Gulf, Chris Haiveta, in a sitting late last year.
Governor Haiveta asked the Treasury Minister on whether he was willing to undertake a review of the Act, management and the role of the Central Bank in supervising commercial banks and finance institutions to ensure they adhere to government policy.
He further asked if there will be a review of the membership of the board to allow independent, technically qualified board members rather than having industry interest groups in the board.
“Are you willing and prepared to do a review to allow macro-economic policy setting and framing that is now being conducted by the bank, but is rightly the purview of the government of the day?”
In response, Minister Ling-Stuckey said though his first 100 days were focused solely on budget repair, he gave the assurance that after returning from the festive season, he will be sitting down and looking at all those agencies that fall under Treasury.
“I will be happy to conduct that review, not just because it’s time to do it but because having spoken to many of our multilateral partners, speaking to bilateral partners and speaking to a whole range of stakeholders within the space, many think that it is time.
“So in relation to all those specific concerns that he’s raised, we’ll capture all of those in our review and at the right time, I’ll bring it back to the relevant government agencies for further discussions.”
(Article by Albert Moses – third year UPNG Journalism student)