Address government’s procurement processes

 LAWMAKERS in Parliament recently raised the issue of hired car companies charging exorbitant rates to service government organisations last week. 

It was  indicated there is a belief that there is collusion in this industry involving civil servants.

I strongly suspect that such collusion extends to other areas of government administration such as stationary supplies, servicing of vehicles, hotel or guest houses accommodation and property purchase and maintenance.

Most of the procurement processes are controlled by the government departments.

Without transparent protocols, who can say that collusion does not exist between civil servants and service providers to charge more than the actual market price for the goods and services?  

The government must look into the procurement processes. 

In this way, much money can be saved to be used in the most-needed areas within these government organisations. 

While on that issue, the government would do a big service to most working people living in the urban areas of PNG to address the high house rental rates being charged by landlords and their agents for their houses. 

Rental rates are ludicrously high. Few public servants and middle-class private sector workers are able to afford to live in a house at such rates.

The high rental rates for houses are not determined by the forces of supply and demand as most people are led to believe, but by the land lords and their agents who  are setting the rates wantonly as there is no regulatory authority to monitor and control rents.

The Government must address these issues before the situation gets out of hand.

Wotekep Kangtekep

Port Moresby