Waigani, dead and corrupt: Smith
By HARLYNE JOKU
EASTERN Highlands Governor Mal Kela-Smith has described Waigani administration as dead and corrupt with little support for the provinces,
He made the remarks on the occasion of Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd’s visit to Goroka last Friday.
Mr Smith said more assistance was needed to do more to combat the corruption and wastage in Port Moresby.
“Waigani tries to be the nerve centre to ensure service delivery to the rest of the country. Waigani is effectively dead and corrupt with little support for the provinces,” Mr Smith told the Australian Prime Minister and his delegation during talks in Goroka.
He said he had had enough of ‘development experts’ who fly in and out giving power-point presentations, referring to experts engaged y AusAID.
“These people had little understanding of why the solutions they suggested were not possible for us. We need people to roll up their sleeves and work with us,” he said.
He said he personally had to fund the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee to conduct its work due to Parliament having no funds.
“During the PAC inquiries, every Government department, including Parliament itself, were found to be totally negligent and misused about K2 billion in taxpayers and donors’ funds,” Mr Smith said.
“Currently we have a state within a state and the bureaucrats are calling the shots. Waigani misuses most funds meant for the provinces. We tried to get K10 million for our hospital in the mini budget but only received K5 million. Waigani stole the rest,” Mr Smith said.
He added that he appreciates the difficulty the Australian government must be experiencing when trying to assist PNG with aid.
He urged the Australian government to continue to engage with the lower levels of government, especially the provincial and local level governments.
“I suggest Australia refocus assistance further down to the remote rural areas that have not seen services for a decade or more. Secondly shift the focus of your assistance from advice and advisers to implementers.
“Work more on the actual service delivery rather than on the analysis and planning.
“We know what is right and what will work for our people.
“We need assistance to make these things work,” Mr Smith said.
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