Public service plays vital role in partnership: PM

The public service plays a crucial role in its partnership with the Government , Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says.
He said there were many changes taking place in the Pacific and it was important to hold meetings such as this “so that we can manage some of the changes that are taking place”.
He said it was a good opportunity to compare ideas on services that countries and their people demanded.
“Having been a public service minister for many, many years and having worked with (Personnel Management) Secretary (John) Kali, I appreciate the challenges that the public service machineries of our various countries continue to face,” O’Neill said when opening the 2017 Pacific Public Service Commissioners’ Conference – with the theme ethical and values-based leadership and governance in the Pacific – in Port Moresby.
“That is why this conference, on ethics and values based on leadership, is quite an important one. We can continue to highlight what we can do to meet those challenges and take advantage of many of the opportunities that are there for us in our receptive countries.”
O’Neill said PNG was going through changes including infrastructure development, growth in the economy and reforms in public service structure. “I inherited a government which, previous to that, was embarking on an exercise called rightsizing and downsizing the public service machinery in our country,” O’Neill said.
“What that simply means is sacking everybody, in the simplest form of words.
“When I took office as public service minister in the previous government, and of course when we took over government over the last six years, our aim was to rebuild the public service and not necessarily to put people off work, but reskilling them so they continue to perform better.”
Kali said PNG would highlight what it was doing to reform the public service at the conference.