MP says making drastic changes good for council

LAE MP John Rosso says he is “upsetting a lot of people” by making drastic changes to the Lae City Council (LCC) operations.
Lae Mayor Koim Trilu Leahy had accused him of “interfering” with the council’s operations.
Leahy claimed that Rosso was putting a halt on some of the council’s programmes and that he had not conducted a district development authority meeting since his election into office.
“I am upsetting a lot of people by the drastic changes I am making in trying to ensure that the city council is running effectively and efficiently,” Rosso said.
“The city council is ineffective and inefficient at the moment—that’s the truth of the situation.
“There’s a lot of maladministration (in the city council).
“Employees’ wages have not been paid, contractors have not been paid on time and there are allegations of gross mismanagement and incompetence inside the city council affairs.
“I’ve called for an auditing into the city council’s affairs and I am upsetting a lot of people.
“The city manager has been sidelined and the Office of Inter-Government Relations and Local Level Government, which is the mother agency for councils and provincial governments, has undertaken a preliminary audit and hopefully the findings of the audit will be released this week or next week.
“I know I’m stepping on a few toes and I’m prepared to face the consequences and criticism that come out of it.”
Rosso said the problems associated with the LCC has been ongoing and deeply rooted over the years.
“As the elected MP for Lae, my only concern is to ensure the people of Lae get the services they rightly deserved,” he said.
“If I do not do it now, who else will do it?”
“I do not care if it costs
me my job but somebody’s got to do it.”
Rosso said he was willing to work with the mayor but at the moment he was busy travelling to and from Port Moresby trying to get the Lae City Authority (LCA) established.
“It’s been taking a lot of my time. It is not that I have purposely ignored them (Leahy and Agi LLG president Sam Agi),” he said.
“When the time is right, I will sit down and talk with them.”