Govt takes measures to cut wasteful spending

Chief Secretary to Government Isaac Lupari has issued an instruction to departmental heads to create uniformity in human resource and payroll management systems.
Lupari said the reforms were part of a wide range of measures that were removing waste, increasing transparency and ensuring government systems were able to best serve the interests of the nation.
He gave the directive in a circular instruction to all departmental heads and heads of statutory bodies and authorities.
Following the directive, no public or statutory body will procure any HR, payroll or financial system, or related software licences that have not been certified for use by the Department of Finance.
The circular instruction is effective as of Wednesday May 17.
“In the past, a significant amount of funds were wasted with different departments trying to have their own and separate HR and payroll system,” Lupari said. The financial loss was exacerbated by each of these different departments and agencies buying separate IT software licences, instead of the State being able to take advantage of economies of scale and purchase a central licence.
“Following direction from the Prime Minister, the Government has addressed this legacy issue, and will now save the State millions of kina that can be better spent on schools, hospitals and other essential services.
“This instruction will ensure control over the types of systems used and will have uniformity and adaptability to the government information systems.
“We are moving forward with reforms that increase transparency and reduce the risk of misuse of funding.”
“These new measures will further replace systems that were not properly appropriated and the Central Supply and Tenders Board has been asked to review prior procurements,” Lupari said.