Enga Governor Grand Chief Sir Peter Ipatas, during question time on Thursday January 12, 2023, queried Prime Minister James Marape, regarding the powers of the provincial government and district development authorities.
“Will there be a devolution of powers?” asked Governor Ipatas.
When responding, Prime Minister Marape assured Governor Ipatas and fellow heads of provincial governments that the government he leads is not working to undermine provincial governments.
“In fact, we have been trying our very best to empower our provincial government, work and strengthen our provincial governments,” said PM Marape.
The Prime Minister emphasized that dialogue on functional autonomy without economic empowerment, cannot happen.
“What is the relevance of functional autonomy when you are still dependent on Waigani to support those functions?
“We must match the functional autonomy with equal fund raising ability at the provincial level to ensure you sustain those functions that are autonomous to your province,” Marape said sternly.
The Prime Minister stated that more dialogue needs to take place with the governors.
He added that his government will be working to identifying the issues of decentralization and empowerment in the provincial government system.
“We need to entrench this system but in a better way. The systems we establish do not become itself an impediment for proper delivery of services to our people and becomes a well-oiled public service machinery, a government structure system that is delivering the expectations of our people.”
PM Marape emphasized, “Governors have a superior power, even much higher than the DDAs who are operating the District Development Authority Act.
He clarified that DDAs are not a government, rather, a delivery mechanism setup to deliver to districts and should work with provincial governments.
PM Marape concluded by saying, “I do not want to bring Papua New Guinea beyond 2025, 50th independent anniversary with those structural impediments in the way. We need to clear them before 2025.”