MINISTRY OF INTER-GOVERNMENT RELATIONS & BOUGAINVILLE AFFAIRS

National Parliament, PMB, Waigani, NCD Papua New Guinea.

Tel: 301 1001 Fax: 325 7446 Email: pbarter@mtspng.com

MEDIA STATEMENT

In the Post Courier today, Mel Togolo joined Mike Manning in condemning the delivery of services to the people in rural areas. This in fact is the harsh reality but it is wrong to single any blame to one Government, the failure of the system is largely due to past and current politicians, coupled by a largely ineffective public service to commit themselves to make the system work and of course the shortage of money some of which is wasted.

Whilst what they say is true for most Provinces, there are glaring exceptions – in East New Britain services are reaching the people. The same applies in some other provinces and districts, the problem is that the delivery of services is not consistent and something must be done to correct the situation and this is exactly what is being discussed at the Ministerial level of the present Government.

As an example, we are undertaking exhaustive consultation on the preparation of “Urbanization” and how we should handle the urban areas throughout PNG, how we should handle “informal settlements”, issues related to land owners, health, education and most importantly involving people in urban areas to be productive members of the community and most of all “poverty alleviation”.

This Urbanization Policy is expected to establish new parameters that will ultimately restore some form of order in the urban environments, improve law & order and provide “genuine” settlers the chance of receiving health, education and an acceptable level of housing whilst the non genuine settlers will have to return to their original provinces and work their land. This may result in the re-introduction of Vagrancy laws or other means of enticing the unemployed people out of urban areas. Most of all it will respect the traditional landowner rights.

At present the proposed “Registration of Land” is being discussed at various forums and it is disappointing to see a cartoon recently depicting the Government “grabbing land” as this is not the case at all. The policy protects landowners by registering their land and enabling them to decide for themselves on how the land will be used, for how long and how much, in the end, the land remains under the ownership of the landowner whom should benefit by the mobilization of his or her land and most of all it will enable PNG to develop the economy by providing more commercial and agricultural activities that in turn will create employment, business opportunities. It may also eventually provide PNG to be economically independent and provide the Governments(s) sufficient funds to provide the services that people are demanding.

This leads me to make another comment, in many cases the people who make the most demands pay the least tax and without tax, the Government is unable to really meet the demands being made by the public. The current VAT will be replaced by SST in 2004 with a new formula that will benefit some provinces and not others which will remain the same but the fact remains this method of taxing is the only fair way the Government can collect revenue to support its budget. The new SST will enable provinces with the capacity and the will to collect the powers to collect direct at the Provincial level but I double very few Provinces will take up this option as they will have to also accept the cost of collection?

It should also be understood that the National Fiscal & Economic Commission has undertaken a major study on how we can more effectively deliver services to the people from National and Provincial Levels – the results of this will not be available until the end of 2003.

The current system of District Support Grants being distributed by the Member has resulted in some districts/electorates developing, whilst others have suffered – again it is inconsistent and the sooner we have stability in Governments, the sooner we can more positively and effectively distribute funds to provide essential services. I do not have the facts, but it is my guess that more than 50% of our funds are being wasted in one way or the other albeit it misappropriation, misuse, bad planning, poor implementation, poor contracting or contractors or just plain stealing. This problem is being addressed through the Integrity of Political Parties, until we can provide the stability of Governments, we will continue to largely have governments held together through the contribution system of handing out money to MP’s instead of through the appropriate planning and implementing mechanism.

The Somare/Marat Government has introduced policies that has and will contribute towards overcoming many deficiencies of the past. This does not mean to say we have not got a long way to go. I hope to see the implementation of an enabling Act to allow Provinces and Local Level Governments collect revenue from fees and we are at present circulating a list of suggested fees we hope will be acceptable by the Provincial and Local Level Governments, we also would like to see the implementation of a head tax or if not possible a contribution in labour to help the community. I would like to see the CIS and Educational facilities become more self-supporting in food supplies and the education syllabus more focused on how those being educated can become more productive members of our community in both urban and rural areas.

The Government has established the National Road Authority and despite the continual complaints over roads, this Government has accepted the responsibility of repairing the NCD Roads and work has also begun on repairing the Highlands Highway and other roads throughout PNG. The Government recognizes the need to develop feeder roads so that people can bring their products to market. The Government has also embarked on a program that will assist Maritime Provinces develop more efficient water transportation, again we need to time to make sure that this programs are fully implemented and benefit the people in rural areas.

On other issues that we need to solve is how we can reach an acceptable level of immunization, reduce child mortality, women’s health in particular at childbirth and generally improve the level of health services in districts and rural areas.

In the past 12 months I have had to attend to a number of national disasters. My responsibility extends to saving lives of those in immediate danger. It appears to me that past Governments have encouraged people to expect the Government(s) and donors to fund disasters by hand-outs which has reduced the level of help that would traditionally come from the community. We expect organizations like Red Cross, Caritas, Salvation Army, Rotary etc to be ready to help, yet we in PNG do little to help these organizations fund themselves to meet the various scenarios that a rise every year. Those people who criticize the Government for not delivery services to the people need to think sometimes how they can contribute and help us identify solutions.

I am concerned that these matters are raised at a forum attended by Australian Politicians when we have our own venues to express concerns, one of these forums is the CIMC which is just concluding a series of forums in all regions of PNG.

Peter Barter