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Provinces fighting against odds
By
Reporter
THREE provinces in PNG are fighting against odds to rebuild from ashes from both manmade and natural disasters. Western Highlands and Milne Bay are fighting to come back after their Provincial Administration buildings went up in flames while East New Britain is cleaning up volcanic ashes to restore its service delivery modes. Apart from Milne Bay, the Western Highlands and Oro province's Services Improvement Programme Managers revealed at the fifth annual SIP in Mt Hagen this week that they are struggling to rebuild their services delivery capacities from the ashes. Western Highlands Provincial Administrator Malcom Culligan and Deputy Provincial Administrator (Corporative Services) for East New Britain Hosea John applauded the efforts of the SIP in their provinces that complemented other efforts to ensure smooth deliveries of basic services. Mr John said the eruption of Vulcan and Tavurvur volcanoes led to major disruptions of business operations, socio-economic development and service deliveries of the province. Mr John said despite the natural disaster, a vibrant mission statement primarily focusing on and complimenting the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) and the East New Britain Provincial Government (ENBPG) call for "a cohesive approach to harnessing the processes and procedures in effectively and efficiently delivering goods and services to the people of East New Britain". Ms Sonia Gaimas, ENBP SIP coordinator commended SIP which was introduced into the province in 2006, adding despite the problems the program is gaining momentum. Likewise Mr Culligan said Western Highlands despite riddled with political differences and ethnic clashes, is set to rise from the ashes of the burnt down Kapal Haus (house). He assured participants of the review meeting last Monday that it will be through effective implementation of SIP in the districts which will enable them to rise from the ashes. "Despite the difficult times Western Highlands have come through, but we are not discouraged, we will provide all the logistics support and back SIP all the way through in the province," he said. He committed to create a separate SIP Provincial Division under a new structure to give the program more teeth to bite to deliver much needed government services. Under SIP, Mr Culligan said WHP was the first province in PNG to develop council ward plans in line with the government's focus in delivering goods and services to the rural population. "We are here to continue to reinforce SIP and not to give challenges because it is not a strange program," Mr Culligan told participants. Meanwhile, Acting Director Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRMU) Joseph Sukwianomb commended Western Highlands Province for remaining intact despite problems. "SIP is a vehicle to drive to improve existing delivery system and processes into the districts," he said. He challenged technical advisors, program managers, district and provincial administrators on how best they could re-package SIP because there are threats of extinction. "We need to get organised to empower using our resources but how can we be guaranteed existence of efficient service delivery models," Mr Sukwianomb said. In his opening remarks, he said that the fluid situation of the country that enabled public servants to be constantly changed has drastically hampered development and delivery of services. "Under SIP, we have to develop the most effective and efficient methods to adapt to the constant changing atmosphere, mostly created by our political leaders to perform our duties as servant's of the people," Mr Sukwianomb said. The review meeting continues and will end this Friday with visits to various sites in Western Highlands province. |
NEWS
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