Dept a ‘deadstock’, says retiree

By PETER ESILA
THE Agriculture and Livestock Department (DAL) is a “deadstock” riddled with corruption that must be addressed, a retired agriculturist says.
Ian Iyo Mesibere, who has worked with DAL since 1974, said this during a farewell reception for 22 DAL retirees in Port Moresby yesterday.
He said the department was considered a ‘deadstock’ because of lack of management.
Mesibere, who was the chief strategic adviser within the policy branch, said the wantok system needed to be discouraged in the public service as it was detrimental to service delivery and the achievement of targets and goals.
“Based on my experience since 1974 and the colonial administration up to now, I worked under colonial staff and different secretaries,” he said.
“In the last 15 years, the DAL has been going down in comparison to now in terms of resource management and human resource and money and comparing to those times that I experienced with the expatriates in the colonial administration.
“Today we are not on par to that or we have not gone beyond that to progress.
“We have been going down, and part of that is because of corruption.
“Corruption is in every government department, because we have this wantok system, we are employing wantoks who are not qualified for certain post and that is not good for the organisation.
“We are not employing based on merit.”
He said the department had been operating without a corporate plan.
Mesibere said good management was crucial in ensuring that best qualified workers were hired and the department was productive and developing the country’s agricultural sector for the benefit of the people and the nation.
He said the department had reached a good level of performance before but it had underperformed for a long time and people and the private sector looked downed on it.
“We have been told that the DAL is no longer what it used to be, they call us Department of Agriculture and Deadstock because of a total lack of management.”
Mesibere said the corporate plan was incomplete and the department needed to bring in new talent and ideas and a fresh outlook to improve standards.
“We have slack officers, some are now in very senior positions,” he said.
“Some are suspended not charged.