Discipline ministers

THIS government is led by a prime minister who continuously fails to demonstrate control and discipline of his ministers who are encroaching into the department heads’ roles.
We have a Police minister who is constantly doing a constable’s duties.
Then we also have a Petroleum and Energy minister who is now into delivering landowner cheques for the Gobe Petroleum Project.
The officer who made the first set of payments should be sacked. Period! That would be an effective deterrent.
For the minister to take control of the disbursement of the re-printed cheques shows weakness in the administration and also smells fishy.
Mind you, the cheques the Petroleum minister wants to deliver are the fruits of the efforts of various consultants of the landowners.
These people did some investigative work to find under payment monies that the Petroleum Department had withheld from the landowners.
If not for the efforts of the landowners and their consultants the Government would have cheated the landowners.
The minister should give credit where it’s due and pay the cheques in the same manner (place) that the major portion of the monies were paid way back in 2005.
It is not proper for the minister to go to Erave and take credit for something he had no input in and grandstand over a paltry K13 million.
If he wishes to grandstand and do some early work for 2022 why not take all the royalties and equities parked at MRDC and elsewhere for the Gobe Petroleum Project for the last 17 years and the Gobe LNG Project for the last decade.
That would make him a champion in the eyes of the Erave people who will fully support his 2022 aspirations.
Why treat this payment differently thus raising the ire of all the ILG chairmen who refuse to travel to Erave for the cheque presentation in light of the Covid-19 issue.
I appeal to the prime minister to have the underpayments for the Gobe Project paid in the same manner (place) where the other clans were paid theirs more than a decade ago.
The notion to make payments in Erave is to serve the interest of one political party and at least three people who have connections to this party.
I urge the prime minister to demonstrate his leadership by making his ill-disciplined ministers toe the line.
It does not bode well for the country’s leadership when the PM chooses to ignore these “loose canon” ministers playing “cowboys” under his watch.
With 2022 round the bend the PM must not give influential ministries and SOEs a free reign when it comes to disbursement of public funds.
This is a season when Waigani finances will be at the mercy of sharks in a feeding frenzy.
This country cannot afford to have the usual election eve plundering of our coffers by ambitious officials with election dreams especially when the Covid-19 issues is already putting this country in a lot of stress.
Cash cows such as MRDC and KPHL need unprecedented control and monitoring.

Concerned,
Morata II