East Sepik identifies key programmes

By GABRIEL FITO
EAST Sepik provincial government has identified three key priority programmes it is expected to complete in the next three years.
Provincial administrator Samson Torovi said the areas were land mobilisation, law and order and local level government capacity building.
“For any development to take off we need to have land but because we had lost focus on this issue we must go back to the drawing board,” Torovi said.
“Secondly, we need law and order to ensure that the environment is conducive for development. And we need to focus on LLG capacity building in order to deliver services effectively to people in the LLG and ward areas.”
He said the provincial administration had budgeted K1 million this year for land mobilisation and urban resettlement, which would see all illegal settlements in Wewak phased out.
Torovi said government’s efforts would be concentrated on law and order to ensure there were no disturbances to development while all East Sepik department structure, starting from the provincial administrator down to the cleaner, would be nullified later this month.
“This decision will see all public servants from the top down become attached officers as resolved by the provincial executive council (PEC) last week.
“Only persons with merit from within the public service and those from the outside would then be encouraged to apply for jobs, 80 per cent of these jobs would be at the districts while the provincial headquarters in Wewak will absorb only 20 per cent,” Torovi said.