Five senior NIP staff suspended

 NEW Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan has suspended five senior staff members in a sweeping move to get rid of inefficiency, poor productivity and cronyism in his administration.

Sir Julius this week directed New Ireland provincial administrator Monovi Amani to adopt zero tolerance and move swiftly to deal with lazy, defiant public servants who were not politically neutral.

“These are public servants who turn up for work well after 8 or 9am and leave work well before 4.06pm,” Sir Julius said. 

“And yet, these are the very public servants who get paid month after month.” 

The directive followed apparent inaction by Amani to carry out a number of measures to improve the New Ireland public service delivery mechanism.

It included the realignment of middle management rank and file as well as addressing punctuality and attendance of staff at work.

The directives include : 

• Furnishing the total number of applicants for middle management positions in the provincial administration (by July 10,2013);
• Relieving people in the public service who did nothing less than thwart the provincial government;
• Ensuring public servants who could not comprehend the importance of the role they played in service delivery mechanism to shape up or ship out;
• Weeding out those who had compromised or jeopardised their political neutrality;
• Disciplining and sacking those in the public service who had in any way put political pressure on Amani and his senior staff;
• Providing a full report with record of staff punctuality and attendance together with procedures for penalising undisciplined public servants;
• Briefing on disciplinary actions and dismissed officers and,
• Sacking disobedient officers for insubordination in the re-aligning exercise in the provincial administration.

Sir Julius has written to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, who is acting Minister for Police, to direct appropriate action over the misuse and theft of over K64 million from 2002-2007.

O’Neill has been given a copy of an independent investigation carried out by RAM Business Consultants.

The investigation revealed gross abuses of public service and budgetary processes, breach of Public Finance Management Act, tender and procurement processes not followed and other crimes under an illegal set up known as the Limus Structure.

Sir Julius has been concerned at the inaction of relevant state law enforcing agencies, including the police fraud squad, Ombudsman Commission and Public Prosecutors office to take appropriate action