The Government is about to get rid of all foreign “advisers’’ and “consultants’’ working within government departments.
As of January 1 next year, any expatriates working in departments will to have be employees of the Government of Papua New Guinea.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill announced this when answering a question from Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang about the numbers of foreign consultants in the country.
Mr O’Neill said there were advisers and consultants in many of the government departments and that the Papua New Guineans in top roles often deferred to those advisers.
“It’s making our people lazy,’’ he told Parliament. Top officers were not making their own decisions in some cases.
He announced that as of December 31 this year, there would no longer be foreign advisers in the departments.
“If we need to recruit expats, it will done so they are employees of the government of Papua New Guinea , including police and others.
“There will be no arrangements with other governments. They will come under our national government and not anybody else.’’