By HARLYNE JOKU
THE reserve policeman drove the twenty five seater bus from Port Moresby to Kupiano, the Abau district headquarters of the Central province as though he was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser.
On bad parts of the 80 kilometre road, he slowed down and on the good parts he sped.
He was escorting key government officers from the Prime Ministerís Department on Sunday December 17 to the Kupiano District station of Abau.
While most public servants were winding down for the festive period this group was tasked to physically confirm the flow of services to rural people in the district level.
They themed their task c”Operation Painim Rot”.
Abau District was chosen to be the first to be scrutinized by this group. They were to attend the Abau District Development Dialogue meeting which was for a week. They were to identify problems affecting effective service delivery at the district level and suggest alternative solutions.
The Programme Manager for the Public Sector Reform Management Unit (PSRMU) Joe Sukwianomb in charge of the group said the government had made a commitment of more than K10 million to each of the 89 districts in the development grants for 2008.
He said many districts are going to find it difficult to spend these funds.
“As a way forward, PSRMU with the support of key departments is determined to act proactively and decisively through an intervention. This is specific to providing a backup to the district administration in general, and more specific to Abau this week proceeding this Christmas holidays,” Mr Sukwianomb said before the trip.
We left Port Moresby at 11.30 am and arrived at Kupiano at 5.30 pm before dark. The first lag of the journey was comfortable on sealed roads while the second was on bumpy dirt road. It took us five hours.
The scenery was pleasant as the recent rains had greened the Central plains as they are known. It was refreshing to get out of the daily hustle of Port Moresby into the rural setting; to feel and breathe clean air; watch endless plains, the Central Mountain range and cross many creeks and rivers.
Traveling with Mr Sukwianomb was the Program Manager Service Improvement Program, Kelly Kewa, Advisor Vele Iamo and Technical Advisor Simon Cholai and officers from key government departments.
We were welcomed by the District Administrator Apatia Puri and his officers at the Kupiano District Council Chambers and accommodation was arranged.
Kupiano has one guest house which housed three of our senior staff while the rest of us were accommodated by district public servants and their families.
We got to experience true Abau hospitality.
Abau people are friendly and respectful. There was no luxury of a running tap at Kupiano as in urban centres. There was no electricity during the day. But despite this we got to experience true Abau hospitality. Abau people are friendly and respectful and have an abundant food supply of fish, crabs and garden food.
They never tire to fetch water from rain tanks for cooking and washing.
The station generator is switched on from 6.30 to 10.30 pm each night to provide light.
We were given a room to sleep in by our hosts and provided each day with breakfast and dinner.
Kupiano is a well planned district centre with its market, high school, council chambers and district headquarters and treasury.
But similar to the other 88 districts in the country, government services have grossly deteriorated.
The weeklong dialogue between the national government officers and provincial officers resulted in the signing of the Kupiano Communique.
The dialogue exposed issues and challenges that were faced by all sectors of Education, Health, Community Development, Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Transport.
For key sectors such as education the problems experienced by district education officers were that school materials were not provided on time to schools for example exam papers, books etc.
There are insufficiently trained pool of teachers in the district and the inability of the system to contain them at their places for work.
District health services had similar problems. Central province ranked the lowest in the Core Performance Indicators in the country. There was gross run down of health facilities. There was non availability of essential drugs at the district health facilities, lack of facilities and lack of transport to support health programmes.
The other economic sectors including DAL and Fisheries faced the issues of lack of extension services and awareness, lack of market access and credit facilities and lack of downstream processing.
We heard first hand from the district officers that these problems have been ongoing for the past 20 years.
The Kupiano Communique is the basis of a combined policy submission to CACC (Central Agency Coordinating Committee) headed by Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari and key departmental heads.
“We hope we can find solutions through the government funding initiative of K10 million that is meant to kick start rural development in 2008. It is also expected that the insights gained from the Abau District Development Dialogue would help the team to design a module (template) that could be applied in other districts throughout the country in 2008 and beyond,” Mr Sukwianomb said.


 

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