Regional forum provides insights

THE Highlands Regional Development Forum held last week in Jiwaka has provided an insight into how quality leaders could be groomed to provide good, transparent and accountable leadership.
Jiwaka Governor Dr William Tongamp described the forum as enlightening.
Tongamp described the provincial, district and local level government services improvement programmes as failed systems.
He suggested that they should be done away with because the systems made politicians “overnight millionaires”.
The forum was facilitated by the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council.
Tongamp said the services improvement programmes failed to impact the lives of people in rural areas.
“Money directly lands at the hands of politicians and they become rich overnight. This system is not working. It has totally failed,” he said.
He suggested that money must be given directly to the provinces to deliver services to the people.
He said provincial authorities knew the province better and could coordinate resources more effectively than the MPs who most of the time stayed in Port Moresby.
“Provincial grants, functional grants or health and education grants must be increased and given directly to the provinces to budget because they know the problems better.”
Tongamp said those in Waigani knew nothing about what the rural outback in Papua New Guinea was like.
“Some people in very remote parts of the country have never seen government services. This DSIP concept is a failed system.”