Civil service cost key issue

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By DALE LUMA
THE cost of the public service is expected to be a key expenditure issue in the 2021 national budget to be tabled in Parliament next week, a company executive says.
Credit Corporation chief executive officer Peter Aitsi told The National that it would most likely be the major expenditure item.
“I have no doubt it will be a challenging budget to prepare,” Aitsi said.
“On the expenditure side, I expect the key areas to watch will be public service costs including personal emoluments (wages), debt servicing and whether the Government is able to maintain and or increase the funding allocated for education and health, the police and the law and justice sectors.”
Given the Covid-19-related impacts on most business, he expects profits “will be down this year and as a result Government revenue collections will be under pressure”.
“The IRC (Internal Revenue Commission) commissioner Sam Koim has stated he is not proposing any increase in taxes,” Aitsi said.
“So in terms of revenue, the Government will be relying on the IRC’s efforts to enforce compliance and collection in weak economic conditions.”
He suggested that priority should be given to the Connect PNG policy by allocating funds to infrastructure development.
“In terms of priority, I would like the Government to continue its efforts under the Connect PNG initiative by allocating funding to maintain infrastructure such as bridges, highways and high-value economic roads, ports and airports,” he said.
He supported the call to progress the major resource projects such as P’nyang and Wafi Golpu.
“The inflow of investments from these projects should generate flow through benefits for businesses generally and provide a stimulus to further support Government’s efforts to grow the SMEs (small-medium enterprises) and MSME (micro small-medium enterprises) sectors.”

One thought on “Civil service cost key issue

  • Conduct a feasibility study into the manning levels of the public sector and down size .Too many over paid people doing very little or duplicate functions. They have a very weak appraisal system that is not working .About time they adapt the Private sector performance management system. Pay on performance or place them on Performance Improvement Plan(PIP) for those underperforming, better still terminate if and when they don’t meet the requirements after being placed on PIP.

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