Lupari warns officers

CHIEF Secretary Isaac Lupari has warned provincial administrators to lift their performances because some have become “ineffective”.
He challenged them to take greater responsibility in delivering services to the people, now that the Government is funding provinces, districts and local level governments directly.
Lupari, while opening the recent Provincial and Local Level Service Monitoring Authority conference, said provincial administrators had become ineffective ― not able to perform and deliver services to the people.
He said there had been a massive transfer of financial resources to the provinces, districts and LLGs.
“In the past four years, provinces, districts and LLG shave received substantial funding to implement programmes and projects in their respective jurisdictions.
“(So) we can’t blame the Government if services and developments are not delivered to our people,” he said.
“We, the public servants, including those in Waigani, need to lift our performances.
“We must take advantages of this opportunity so that we create a better PNG for our people and our children.”
Lupari said service delivery was a key focus of the Government.
He also laid the blame on the poor delivery of services to the people on previous governments which failed to implement the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government.
“What we have seen is that successive governments provided lip-service leadership,” he said.
“Financial resources required to fully implement the functions and responsibilities transferred to the provinces, district and local level areas under the OLPLLG were not provided.
“That’s why the role of the authority has remained inactive.
“Many of our rural areas have been neglected for years while our people are struggling every day.”
He said provinces such as Chimbu had seen “four-fold increases” in the budget over the past four years.
“The issue is no longer financial resources,” Lupari said.
“This Government is delivering on its promises to transfer resources directly to the people.”