Appoint school board members on merit

MOROBE has produced great leaders who have served Papua New Guinea honesty, dignity and pride.
One of them is Jacob Sawanga.
He has been in various leadership positions within the public and cooperate sectors because of his qualifications and experiences over the past years.
Twenty years ago, as the principal of Bumayong Lutheran Secondary School, working with Sawanga as the chairman of the governing council, I was delighted to discuss development packages with him and our board members.
We got the approval for projects and by doing so, we brought the school, which is an institution of the Evangelical Lutheran church of PNG to its desired level.
Infrastructure and academic developments took place and were at their best because of Sawanga’s wealth of experience and the opportunities I had with him.
I was honest with the financial reports of the school.
I ensured the governing and the staff members were kept informed on the school’s financial status.
Today, so many school administrators dealing with money and are not transparent.
They are keeping such important information to themselves because they’ve failed to do a good job.
Just recently, I called for tertiary institutions and secondary schools to be audited.
Based on my experiences, I know that only through the audit of financial values against developments, many things will be known.
Those who do not know how to handle finances should not be appointed to handle such positions.
In Morobe, I have seen people heading institutions as board members and chairpersons only to make themselves look good.
Most of them don’t have the record to prove that they deserve these positions.
I want to the school boards to avoid appointing such people.
Get people like Sawanga instead.

Gisuwat Siniwin,
Nawaeb