Aging public servants to be ‘retired’ with AusAID help

REVIVING Papua New Guinea’s aging public sector workforce is one of two target areas Australia is supporting the Government with to address new directions which AusAID is taking to further enhance the Australian-PNG development partnership.
This was announced yesterday by AusAID minister-counsellor Bill Costello at a public sector seminar at the National Research Institute (NRI) in Port Moresby.
Mr Costello said a big workforce training exercise in PNG was seriously needed in the next few years, and AusAID was prepared to prioritise support for this.
Through the technical assistance programme, training of managers was the key to this approach.
In addition, he said Government agencies must streamline their capacity needs from new graduates.
At the same time universities and colleges must upgrade to the level and quality of training to meet reasonable public sector and industry demands so that more qualified and competent graduates can immediately join the workforce.
 “One other key area that Australian Government assistance would complement is the PNG Government efforts to improving service delivery mechanisms to manage forthcoming impacts of the PNG LNG project on the rural population,” Mr Costello said.
He said effecting policy-making and policy implementation would ensure services are enjoyed at the grassroots level.
“While the PNG LNG project was likely to get off the ground in the first 10 years, proper planning and training for impact projects to effectively bring service to the community must begin now,” Mr Costello said.