Academia Nomad

PC: Dr Joseph Ketan

By Joseph Ketan

It is hard to keep track of politicians. We cannot hold them accountable for their actions if we do not know what they are doing – or not doing – with respect to their duties.

We have got to keep our politicians honest by keeping an eye on them at all times!

The PNG daily newspapers, generally, do a good job in keeping our parliamentarians honest, although in recent years there has been growing concerns over biassed reporting on several occasions.

Radio still does a terrific job in terms of coverage and the quality of reporting. The NBC easily leads in keeping our people informed on what is happening in our country. The commercial FM radios are doing a good job, but their focus is on the national capital, leaving room for improvement.

EMTV could become a powerful medium of communication, but they employ lazy reporters, with terrible English, while the good ones (John Eggins and Scott Waide have moved on).

Social media, with all its faults and awful grammar, has the potential to hold MPs accountable, though we get a lot of misinformation at the moment. The level of literacy will improve the standard of reporting and debate on key issues affecting our country.

Sir Anthony Siaguru used to provide some great commentaries on the state of affairs in PNG. I enjoyed reading Dr Tony Deklin’s commentaries, but he has stopped writing for the general public. I love reading Dr Andrew Moutu’s elegant articles on a wide range of topics, but his writing is not for public consumption. He writes for a cultured audience.

John Endomonga and Samson Komati provide useful political commentaries on everything political. Their commentaries, although biased, are necessary. David Lepi’s commentaries are biased toward Peter O’Neill – but he writes beautifully.

Micheal Kabuni and Duncan Gabi do better than most. They will, no doubt, take the mantle of responsible reporting in years to come. I hope politicians do not buy them off. Patrick Kaiku and Teddy Winn will provide leadership in political analysis at UPNG soon. Francis Wagiriai and Mike Kabuni will join them there. That will provide the basis for PNG political scholarship and commentaries on national affairs.

I would love to read more from some great thinkers, including Roland Katak, Joseph Sukwianomb, Professor John Nonggorr, Dr Thomas Webster, Gabriel Pepson, Peter Pena, Peter Komon, Paul Mawa, Paraka Maua Pena, Thomas Laka, Dr Lawrence Sause, Dr Steven Winduo, Dr Elizabeth Kopel, Dr Fiona Hukula, Dr Orovu Sepoe, Dr Hengene Payani, Dr Linus Digim’Rina, and Professor Frank Griffin, and my countrymen Frank Senge Kolma and Nikints Tiptip.

We live in a country with high levels of illiteracy at all levels. It is up to people with knowledge of government to comment on public affairs.

When good men – and great women – stand by and do nothing, evil triumphs. So, it is absolutely necessary that learned men and women must stand up for the rights of the downtrodden.

Have a Safe Easter!

Disappointing disaster responses in PNG

PNG’s history for disaster response is fraught with delays, inefficiency, and corruption. Here are some blunders we experience during disasters:

1. Corruption

Under the Public Finance Management Act, the tender process is suspended when a disaster is declared. This is done to ensure the response is not delayed by the bureaucracy of tender processes.

The government doesn’t have to go through the tender process. Instead it gives the funds to a specific service provider so they can move with speed to get supplies and life saving equipment to the people. This may include, for instance, brining water purifiers from overseas, or logistics for medicine, or building a damaged telecommunications equipment to re-establish communications etc.

The problem is that politicians and authorities then give the contracts to their cronies and wantoks who have no experience, or capabilities to deliver. As they delay and misuse and mismanage the funds, the people suffer.

2. History of unaccountability

To date, we have no audits for the millions spent on the devastating earthquake in the Highlands in 2018. Parliament has never received a report to that effect. No one bothers. And life just moves on.

It’s the same for most of the K6 billion spent on COVID-19. Now the IMF is demanding acquittals.

3. No budgets for disasters

PNG is prone to disaster. Every year there’s flooding somewhere that destroys homes and villages and gardens, or there is a volcanic eruption, or drought, or high tides, or cyclones etc etc.

Yet when you look at the budgets for departments responsible for disasters it’s almost negligent. Our national policy for disaster response is called “ad hoc” strategy.

4. Lack of coordination

For every review, you will hear about the lack of coordination. This problem applies to donors and aid providers as well.

When there is a disaster, the private sector gives some assistance, the foreign embassies give something, the international NGOs, the multilateral organisations, provincial and national governments, all respond at various levels.

A national, streamlined, and predictable strategy would help. But usually, different stakeholders do different things or fund the same area whilst others suffer.

5. Lack of data

This is the most important one: do we know exactly how many people live within the area affected by the floods and volcanic in East Sepik Province?

Do we know how many women, men, children, those with disabilities, the number of houses, etc.

This is important so we know exactly how much to budget, what kinds of essentials to buy, and where to deliver.

Our last proper census was done in 2001. In 2011 we tried another census which was so inaccurate that even the census office – National Statistics Office – admitted to its inaccuracies.

The next census is planned for 2024, about 23 years later. Someone born in 2002 was never been counted and PNG has no record of his existence. So when disaster hits, you don’t know if this kid even exists, where he exists, or whether is disabled.

We just allocated K10 million because that’s what we think is needed.

Exceptions:

I know there are some very hard working people working day and night to get the stuff our people need. And some good leaders like Allan Bird who saved money from Provincial Services Improvements Program funds and now using it to respond to the disaster. There are some beautiful souls in guys like MAF who assist during disasters. Thank you all.

East Sepik Province (ESP) was hit by 7. 0 magnitude earthquake and flooding, destroying more than 1000 homes. ESP Governor Allan Bird, learning from the Kadavor volcanic eruption in previous years – when the government was very slow in responding – saved money just in case the province had another disaster. Now he’s using those funds to respond to his people as the PNG bureaucracy works to get the national funding to the people.

By Allan Bird

“Many people criticised me for being financially prudent and strict with public finances resulting in a significant cash holding in the ESPG bank account.

Now, during this crisis, I hope people see the value of keeping something in reserve for the bad times. We actually don’t have to wait for anyone to help us. It’s up to us, we can respond and we are. We have the means and the responsibility falls to our local leaders and public servants.

I don’t believe Sepiks are beggars and we don’t enjoy being ridiculed so we must practice this principle of having something in reserve. We are prone to disaster at any time. We can’t depend on other people, we must help ourselves.

The earliest historical teaching we have of government savings is the story of Joseph in the bible. He saw a time of famine and he convinced Pharoah to store up grain during the good times for 7 years of famine. Well we have kept some of our grain at BSP.

In my first year as Governor, Kardovar erupted and we had no money except K2m PSIP which I kept in reserve. We used part of this money to get our people to safety. There was almost no help from the national government because they didn’t have any money at the time. We had to pay for fuel, rations and allowances for the PNG DF vessel that turned up.

This taught me a hard lesson. We have to be ready to respond quickly without waiting for someone else to come.

PNG does not have any savings, in fact we don’t have a savings culture so in bad times we become victims. Well not this time. This time we are ready.

The twin natural disasters we are facing now will test our resilience and our ability to respond. I urge our local leaders at LLG level, all public servants and our people to do all we can to help our people. We just have to be smart, prudent and diligent.

Now that the PA has declared an emergency, each LLG has been given K200,000 in cash to respond to their peoples urgent needs. That’s K5.6m we authorized last week. We have K5m in PSIP that our JBP&BPC will authorize over the coming days. Again this is in cash, sitting in the bank.

We must use our government vehicles and boats, only hire if we have no other option. Keep our costs low, aim at ensuring maximum help goes to our most affected people.

We have set up our teams and once we have confirmed the needs from every ward we expect to start delivering help from Monday onwards. The information from the wards to our disaster control centre is currently being verified. Some wards are still reporting in.

For example, ESPG is purchasing 5,000 water purification kits from the USA at a cost of USD 85,000 and we will require support to fly them into Wewak. This will supply 5,000 families with clean drinking water through the disaster and long after the disaster is over.

While money is important, it will be the genuine, honest actions of all of us during this very challenging time that will be the difference for our people.”

Context: PNG is disaster prone, but the national government is always unprepared for disaster. The bureaucracy is so inefficient that even when funds are released it is delayed. And corruption is rife. During disaster, the prudent financial measures of transparency and accountability is suspended to ensure fast delivery. This includes suspending the need for tenders and bids from service providers. This is to cut the long tender process and awarding of contracts and give the contract to service providers selected by the tenders board and speed up response. However, this is also allows for authorities and politicians to give contracts to their cronies.

Given these circumstances, having money at the province level like ESP did saves lives.