Department aims to fight corruption with reforms

The National National
  • THE Department of Justice and Attorney-General in its bid to fight corruption has introduced reforms in the law and justice sector.
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Attorney-General Davis Steven said the reform followed an institutional audit commissioned in 2018 where an independent human resources consulting firm assessed the department’s performance.
    He said the audit report had identified a number of cases that the department needed to improve on its performance.
    “Central to this reform programme is my stand in fighting corruption and promoting good governance through the rule of law,” Steven said.
    “We want to impose and create a new culture of budget discipline, a new culture of enforcement attitude and enforcing the laws that we are passing.
    “Our focus now after the Social Law and Order Sector (SLOS) is established is to lobby all the resources and support revenue agencies, PNG Customs Services and Internal Revenue Commission.
    “We will relook at reforming their laws and prosecuting the offenders and ensuring PNG knows that we are not passing these laws for nothing.
    “We will guard against anyone that tries to encroach on the protected sovereign wealth that belongs to the people of PNG.”
    The department key milestones include:
  • Corporate Plan (2020 -2025);
  • Oceans policy (2020-2030);
  • Department restructure;
  • Establishment of Oceans office (January 2020);
  • Establishment of Human Rights Secretariat (March 2020);
  • Establishment of Law and Justice Sector Secretariat with DJAG structure (January 2020);
  • Cleansing and re-establishment of the National Narcotics Bureau;
  • Putting all village court officials (7,000) onto the payroll (March 2020);
  • Establishing governance processes within the department;
  • Starting Mentoring Programme for training of young officers at levels of leadership (February 2020); and,
  • Movement to new office building.
    He said as strong advocates of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Whistleblower Bill 2020, the department had introduced a number of strategic interventions to stamp out corruption. These include:
  • The withdrawal of powers (section 32) from deputies and branch heads to streamline financial management;
  • The establishment of the budget screening committee that sits every Wednesday to verify requisition;
  • The establishment of the project management implementation committee;
  • The strengthening of the finance and audit branches; and,
  • The screening and vetting of service providers and executing service contracts.