Check appointment process

Letters

THIS is for the immediate attention of the Prime Minister, Minister for Public Service and other ministers responsible for the Central Agencies Committee.
The Government recently passed several new amendment bills; one of them being the Prime Minister & NEC Act, which has been amended and certain sections repealed with consequential amendments to the Public Service Management Act.
Several objectives were to be achieved through these legislative changes.
Key among them was aimed to improve the public sector reform and oversight and efficiency.
Secondly, it intended to improve efficiency in the selection process of all executive appointments.
While that is the case, and while we are yet to see its effects in the service delivery and outcome, there is an entrenched syndicate that continues to undermine these policy-oriented changes and continues to hijack the appointment process.
Can the Government look into this as a matter of urgency?
For instance, under the Public Service Management Act, it provides for a specific function and that is to pre-screen all applicants for executive appointments following their advertisement.
It is just one committee and consists of all the deputy secretaries of the central agencies.
They assess applicants based on their merits who are then ranked in order of preference.
This list is signed off by the committee members and their assessment is finally signed off by the secretary of Department of Personnel Management and forwarded to the Public Service Commission (PSC).
At the PSC, interviews are conducted and a cabinet submission is prepared for the Minister for Public Service who presents it to the NEC.
What is alarming is the apparent interference, or, rather, tampering of this assessment process.
Recently, there were reports of names of properly assessed candidates who were dropped and replaced with names of persons under police investigations or those who did came in “through the backdoor”.
Can the madam secretary for the Department of Personnel Management explain and come clear on this? Also, recently, several advertisements have been done – the chief immigration officer, National Narcotics Bureau director-general, Department of Communications secretary and more.
Rumours are that those that have been recommended by the pre-screening committee have been re-arranged and names have been swapped. I am wondering whether the secretary has the power to prescreen decisions made by a sanctioned committee in the appointment process?
If she has, then that’s fine, but if not, the Government has to step in investigate these allegations and, if need be, have her replaced.
Prime Minister, this call is timely for your intervention!

Kep Luma

2 comments

  • Your comment supported Kep Luma.
    What is seen happening is whom you know or a supporter of one during political crisis in the elections to be MPs.
    PMJM has to action his words by doing away this practices and go or live by the processes, policies, and systematically.
    Otherwise, people come in through the back door and do the wrong things and get away rich.
    Poor PNG systems

  • Kep Luma, your thoughts are correct and many of us share the same concerns in the political interferences of appointment process of department heads, provincial administrators and CEOs of SoEs.

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