The National Road Authority legislation will be repealed and all assets and staff will be transferred under the Works Department.
This is part of a restructure to ensure the development and maintenance of roads are coordinated in an organised manner and the duplication of roles are done away with.
Works Minister, Michael Nali, said the repealing of the legislation and restructuring will ultimately conclude by the end of 2019.
In the meantime, arrangements have been made for the Department of Works, Provincial and District Development Authorities (DDAs) to share responsibility of roads throughout the country.
The first of such arrangements, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Department of Works, the West New Britain Provincial Government and Talasea DDA on Thursday, August 9th, 2018.
The MOA was signed by Minister Nali, West New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel and Talasea MP, Francis Maneke.
Minister Nali said the Works Department has the presence around the country and it can support provincial governments and DDAs look after roads.
Under the arrangement, while the Works Department will be tasked with the construction of roads, the maintenance of roads will be a shared responsibility.
(Butibam road filepic)