Public servants

Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika said money is essential to growth and development and when public servants misuse it, as in the case of Jeffery Yakopya, development is retarded.

“The role of public servants is to implement government decisions to deliver the goods and services to the people of this country and not to go into business themselves and run those businesses,” said Sir Gibbs.

“Any diversion and deviation from these responsibilities has its dire consequences and the court must not shy away from meeting out the consequences with severity.

Department of Personnel Management Secretary John Kali said negotiation had already started with the Public Employees Association (PEA).

He said the parties also agreed that insurance cover for public servants will be resolved through an MoU for individual cover.

The parties encourage all public servants to take individual cover with PEA.

The Department of Personal Management recently in the province to roll out the Alesco Payroll system.

Deputy Secretary of the department Dr Agnes Friday said it is a milestone achievement for the province.

She said the Alesco automated system is one of the four components of the Human Resource connect programs that are being rolled out to the provinces.

She said the second component is data cleansing and for this program DPM is working in partnership with the Finance Department to ensure that all data for the provinces are cleansed and updated.

Juffa made the remarks after the Government has announced through the Minister for Public Service Sir Puka Temu that public servants will not see an increase in salaries for two years.

“This is a form of cruelty that will punish not just public servants but an entire nation.

“The public service is the vehicle required to transform Government policy into tangible outcomes and that is to deliver goods and services and successfully manage Government programs.

Juffa told Loop PNG that this thoughtless and sinister decision is no good news and is certain to cause much unhappiness in the public service.

“You do not need to be a rocket scientist or a human resource expert to conclude that an unhappy public service will ensure poor productivity...this in turn is sure to slow down any effort required for nation building.

“The public service is the vehicle required to transform Government policy into tangible outcomes... that is to deliver goods and services and successfully manage Government programs.

The reform covers the years 2017 to 2019 for the public service under the Public Sector Reform, which is contained in Volume One of the 2017 National Budget, Economic and Development Policies.

The document claims that from 2010 to 2016, the average pay of public servants has increased by 55 percent and the average pay of the lowest paid has increased by 75 percent.

The three-day course provided the participants with frameworks for ethical decision making in leadership.

The public servants, 20 women and 16 men travelled from across Papua New Guinea to attend, including participants from East Sepik, Eastern Highlands, Madang, Milne Bay, New Ireland, Port Moresby and Oro.

Participants, who comprised current and emerging public sector leaders, were welcomed to the course by Taies Sansan, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Resource Management, and Jodie McAlister, Australian High Commission Counsellor for Economic Governance.

Due to the construction of facilities in preparation for the FIFA U20 women’s world cup, the competition is staged at Bomana next to the Police College.

Most team in the competition was supported by government departments as many public servants are taking part in the footy.

However, two large area have been cleared as games were run smoothly in the last three weeks with two fields catering for close to thirty corporate teams in the six divisions including Men’s A league and men’s B and Women’s A and Women’s B including U19’s.

When officially opening the Provincial and Local Level Service Monitoring Authority (PLLSMA) conference in Port Moresby early this week, Lupari told the provincial administrators that they (public servants) were the drivers of the service delivery.

He said lack of money should not be an excuse.

“If services do not get to the people, the National Government and the leaders should not be blamed. We are responsible for delivery,” he told the Provincial administrators.

He said the province needs each and everyone in the province to develop and grow the province.

"Unity is my main concern in the province.

"Leaders won't develop the province themselves but needed each and every effort from the public servants to develop and get the province to the next level," he said.

He added that the province have so far experiencing some developments infrastructure in the province but needed team work and unity to drive the development.