| Sports |
by Frank Senge Kolma
Embarrassing bungles at the top
SUSPENDED PNG Defence Force commander
Commodore Peter Ilau returns to work today.
His reinstatement, by a National Court edict, is yet another
embarrassing body blow to the highest decision making body in the
country, the National Executive Council headed by Prime Minister
Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.
Justice David Cannings last Friday quashed the NEC’s decision of
Nov 11 to suspend Commodore Ilau and declared that the appointment
of Col Francis Agwi as acting commander was unlawful.
It appears from the judgment that the NEC had breached the
Constitution by failing to consult the Public Service Commission (PSC),
by failing to give to Commodore Ilau the right to be heard and by
failing to give the commodore the reasons for his suspension.
Remember that Commodore Ilau is one of three high ranking
Government officials that the NEC suspended without notice or
ceremony on Nov 11.
The others were Chief Secretary Joshua Kalinoe and acting Police
Commissioner Tom Kulunga.
Mr Kalinoe was earlier restored to his post, also by National
Court edict and for the same reasons as those which were stated in
Mr Ilau’s case.
Unless the circumstances are utterly different, we can make a safe
prediction that Mr Kulunga will also be restored to his post –
though how he fits into the whole messy scheme in his department
is a totally different matter.
I suspect that too will come before the courts.
The litany of simple procedural errors by the NEC makes this
august body look foolish and
amateurish.
A few months earlier, a decision was made by NEC to remove the
managing director of the National Housing Corporation Paul Asakusa.
Now, Mr Asakusa comes from Biwat in Angoram, which is politically
very supportive of Sir Michael and also the electorate of Arthur
Somare.
When the Somare cabinet made that decision to suspend a son of
Angoram this close to the next elections, a lot of eyebrows were
raised.
The submission for Mr Asakusa’s suspension had been presented to
cabinet by newcomer to the Somare cabinet – Housing Minister and
PNG Party strongman Andrew Kumbakor.
Mr Asakusa’s proposed replacement was Engan, Philip Kikala, the
minister’s choice. That he was accepted by cabinet also raised
eyebrows.
Not to be outdone, Mr Asakusa took cabinet to the courts claiming
that proper procedures were not followed in his suspension.
After a few weeks of a high profile trial, cabinet was found
guilty as charged and Mr Asakusa was restored to his job where he
remains to this day.
Mr Kumbakor also remains at his job and it is anybody’s guess how
relations must be between the two top men in Housing.
No attempt has been made to suspend Mr Asakusa again.
Neither has any attempt been made to suspend Mr Kalinoe since his
reinstatement.
Mr Kalinoe’s suspension was sudden and unexpected.
One week, he was named to investigate the sudden spiriting of
Julian Moti from our shores.
In the following week, Chief Somare told Parliament that Mr
Kalinoe along with Commodore Ilau and Commissioner Kulunga were
suspended for their part in spiriting Moti away in a defence force
aircraft.
Information before the Defence Force Board of Inquiry suggests
already that one of the three, Commodore Ilau could not have been
a party to the course of events leading to the Moti flight because
he was not present and had an officer acting in his place.
Now, if the Somare Government is the body, it must be said that Mr
Kalinoe, is the heart of that body.
In his position, he oversees all initiatives, programmes and
policies of Government. Nothing bypasses or should bypass his
scrutiny.
That he was given the role to investigate the Moti affair and then
to be suspended without his report ever being made public – that
is, if there ever was an investigation and a report at the end of
it – raised a lot of questions.
One obvious one is: Was the entire thing concocted to divert
public attention from arriving at the truth?
Many attempts to stop further inquiries from being conducted and
the reluctance with which Government officers are dragging
themselves to the Defence Force Board of Inquiry certainly seems
to offer credence to the above assertion.
It also seems logical to surmise that cabinet seems to be using
this suspension decisions to test public opinion or that it is not
at all committed to making those decisions.
If it did, the simple thing to do would be to reconvene cabinet,
follow the right procedures and to make the same decision again.
What is of bigger concern is the manner is which cabinet, as a
very important decision making body, is bypassing very simple and
established rules and procedures.
There is a cabinet secretariat, headed by a very competent
secretary in Winnie Kiap.
That secretariat would normally ensure that all proper procedures
are followed.
There is another body calling itself the CACC involving central
agencies like the Department of the Prime Minister, the Chief
Secretary, Department of Personnel Management, Finance and
Treasury, which would normally vet important cabinet submissions.
On legal matters and that affects 90% of submissions, the
attorney-general’s opinion would be sought.
In all, that is a lot of important bodies and a lot of checks and
balances.
Yet, all these bodies have failed to follow the simplest of
procedures:
l Inform the PSC that an officer is about to be suspended;
l Inform the person about to be suspended that this is what the
Go-
vernment is about to do; and,
l Let that person know the reasons why the action is about to be
taken against him or her. He should rightly be given time to
respond and that is stipulated in the Public Service General
Orders.
If this simplest of procedures cannot be followed, then I ask you:
What other procedures, rules and laws are not being followed that
are more complex?
And if this is happening at the boardroom of the highest office in
the land, then how many other offices such as those of ministers
and departmental heads and agencies are ignoring or bypassing set
rules, procedures and processes?
The end result is that cabinet decisions are now open to
challenge; they are rendered ineffective and if this continues,
cabinet could and will lose its respect and credibility.
 
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