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PUBLIC Service Minister Peter O’Neill wants
to see 200 houses for public servants built in Port Moresby by the end
of this year.
He said these houses would be a model that would then spread to other
parts of the country to help boost the morale and public service
performance in the delivery of services.
Mr O’Neill said this when outlining his plans for the improvement of the
public service to deliver services in the next five years.
“The Government has to take the lead role in this matter. When I was the
Public Service Minister in 1999, cabinet allocated K10 million to start
the housing programme and we had an arrangement with the bank and POSF
to assist with the financing aspects,” he said.
“We are now in discussions with the Finance and Treasury Department, the
problem was that we had too many committees and consultants on the
scheme and nothing got done.”
He said huge amount of resources had been wasted but we have nothing.
“We have to simplify that by having the Government directly allocating
money to a contractor to build houses.”
Mr O’Neill said the Government would develop a financial model through
salary deductions where a house could not be repossessed when loans were
not paid.
“We will arrange with POSF to help with a deposit and the Government
must build the houses, the Government will put out a tender for
companies to build a trial model, then we will then ask public servants
to buy and if they are willing, we will discuss that with POSF and the
bank,” he said.
“The bottom line is for public servants to have a long-term loan and low
interest rates affordable to his salary level.”
 
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