Dishonesty blamed for lack of services in ESP

EAST Sepik National Alliance branch president Henry Takombe has blamed the public service machinery for not delivering despite millions of kina being pumped into the districts for development.
Takombe, who is also a founding member of the National Alliance party, said public servants, starting from the provincial administrator down to the office secretary, were becoming a stumbling blocks to development because they compromised the positions they were occupying to dishonestly obtain money earmarked for projects particularly in the rural areas.
He said public servants stealing through fraudulent practices were increasing and the government should do more to minimise this.
Takombe said all officers holding positions of authority in the provincial administration should be carefully screened before they were appointed to ensure that all appointments were on merit so that there was no foul play.
Takombe said God-fearing people should be appointed to positions so that they work transparently in delivering services to the people.
“The national government is giving millions of kina to provinces next year as appropriated in the recent national budget but the onus to deliver services to the people is on the provincial administrators and public servants,” Takombe said.
He said people should not be misled into believing that the government was not putting money for infrastructure development, schools, fisheries, agriculture and other impact projects.
Takombe said the reason why people were not seeing tangible development taking place was due to slack provincial public service.
Meanwhile, a Wewak urban ward councillor has commended a recent audit in the province which uncovered serious allegations of misconduct in office by public servants.
The councillor, who requested anonymity, also praised police commander Insp Charles Parinjo and his team of investigators for their efforts in addressing the matter .