Commission launches 2017 plan

THE PNG Electoral Commission (PNGEC)  launched its National Logistics Plan in Port Moresby yesterday.
Chief Secretary and chairman of the Intergovernmental Election Steering Committee Isaac Lupari said lack of proper coordination between key government agencies and stakeholders in conducting national elections in the previous years  resulted in escalating costs.
“I think in the past, we found escalation of election costs up K800 million to K900 million for every election,” Lupari said.
“This is simply because things were done in an uncoordinated manner.
“People were just engaging service providers which are done on an ‘ad hoc’ basis without coordination.
“As a result, we saw escalation of costs.”
“Even today service providers of the 2012  elections are demanding that there are still some outstanding bills to be paid and it appeared in the newspapers. “This plan will make sure we stop these kinds of things happening in the future and I commend PNGEC for this way forward.”
Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato said a significant part of their current and future challenge was to effectively and efficiently manage the substantial logistic efforts required to support elections so that the Government and people of PNG received value of their money.