Economic down turn

Letters

THE economic down turn is affecting all businesses including the State-owned entities (SOEs).
Many of them have been struggling to make profits and pay dividends to the Government, which is in fact holding the shares in trust for the Papua New Guineans.
We understand that Kumul Consolidated Holdings, the Government appointed trustee has directed all SOEs to cut costs and all of them are now reviewing their operations as well as audit their books to identify revenue and cost leakages to cut cost.
Cutting cost is a normal and ongoing exercise undertaken by companies during hard times to keep afloat and there is nothing wrong with what the SOEs have undertaken.
One of the areas that is the focus of this exercise is downsizing staff numbers and freeze on recruitments.
We agree that aged workers and non-essential positions should be done away with as part of the cost saving exercise, however this must be done in a humane manner.
It is important that we need to look at this critically, given the cultural backgrounds that our own people come from.
Papua New Guinean workers, unlike their expatriate counterparts, are responsible to a lot of people.
Their wages look after their own families as well as the extended families living throughout the country and if anything should happen to them, it will affect a lot of people, from towns and cities right down to the rural communities.
In all the SOEs, some expatriates are sitting on K1 million annual contracts on positions, some positions that have been successfully localised or can be localised successfully at half the cost.
There are some expatriates that deserve to continue on their contracts because they are adding value.
Papua New Guineans own the SOEs. They must feel, touch, taste and see the direct benefits from being shareholders of these companies.
The dividends paid to the Government goes to the consolidated revenue so when the Government spends it, the employees and their families including the extended relations around the country do not see or feel any direct impact, however the wages earned by the workers have an immediate impact on lives.
Given the few job opportunities around now, we are definitively sending them to their death.

Umbrella boy
Port Moresby