PNG falls back 13 places in
corruption survey
By HARLYNE JOKU
PNG has fallen back 13 places in
the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index
(CPI) for this year.
“Last year, PNG was ranked 130 out of 163 countries and this
year we are ranked 162 out of 180 countries so effectively our
ranking has dropped 13 places,” TI PNG’s Richard Kassman said,
when announcing the CPI yesterday.
Mr Kassman said PNG had sadly fallen in ranking reflecting the
perceived level of corruption due to many outstanding issues
facing past and present governments that had not been addressed
properly.
“The rating was still not good enough. We should be improving
rather than dropping,” Mr Kassman said.
He urged MPs to work together and provide leadership in dealing
with the issues of corruption and poor governance.
Mr Kassman said the misuse of public funds, fraud, dishonesty,
wantokism, stolen money, failure to keep proper financial
accounts, conflicts of interest, questionable public
appointments to positions of trust, public servants’ disregard
for the laws and welfare of the State and failure to keep proper
financial accounts among others, are examples of corruption.
He added that the media had exposed a number of issues of
governance and corruption over the years and the drop in the CPI
rating was not a surprise.
UOG lauds long-serving staff
THE University of Goroka (UOG) rewarded some of its long
serving staff members last Saturday as part of its 10th
anniversary celebrations.
Both academic and non-academic staff who had served the
institution for over 20 years since its teacher’s college days,
were recognised.
The award presentation ball night held at the Bird of Paradise
Hotel was officiated by the vice-chancellor of the University of
PNG, Prof Ross Hynes, who was there as a special guest.
Prof Hynes congratulated UOG on its anniversary and applauded
the recipients of the awards, encouraging them to continue to
give their best for the institution because they had years of
experiences tucked under their belts which were ideal for the
young work force coming after them.
Acting vice-chancellor of UOG Dr Michael Mel said it was one of
the many events the institution celebrated as part of its 10th
anniversary.
Reforestation urged
By ELIZABETH MIAE
THE forest sector has been encouraged to do more reforestations
to preserve forests as the current rate of deforestation is
estimated to be 139,000ha per year.
This indicated that the future does not look too good with
effects from changes in the climate.
This was highlighted during a presentation at a workshop on
climate change that PNG may pay a higher price in terms of
climate change-associated disaster management than the monies it
receives from the sale of its forest produce.
Currently, reforestations are taking place in only some
locations in the country and foresters wanted it to spread to
all logging locations.
In addition to that, officers requested that seedlings must be
made available to replant the trees.
An officer from the Gulf province informed the meeting that
seedlings were allegedly smuggled out of the country by logging
companies and sold overseas.
He added that for reforestation to take place, they should not
only replant but also monitor the movement of seedlings in and
out of the country.
Reforestation was important for the future generation
considering the continuous high population growth.
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