Full accounting for overseas trips

Editorial

URGENT among the advice that the public service transition committee must put to the incoming Parliament and Executive Government (NEC) must be a commitment to take account of every overseas trip taken by government instrumentalities in the years ahead.
So much wastage has been registered in this area alone that only a Royal Commission of Inquiry will determine how much money has been spent on overseas trips, engagements and expositions.
It is a criminal waste of the country’s limited resources for which we have seen no accounting and certainly nil quantifiable benefits for the resources burnt.
For a period of six months, an expo was held in Dubai from Oct 1 to March 31, 2022.
The theme of the expo was “connecting minds, creating the future”, three sub-themes on Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability.
A Programme for People and Planet (PPP) was also held as part of the expo covering Build Bridges focusing on culture, Leave No One Behind focusing on social development, Live in Balance focusing on sustainability, Thrive Together focusing on economic development and a UAE Vision 2071 focusing on the future of the host nation, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The expo attracted large entourages from different departments and agencies from Papua New Guinea.
Singsing groups and even bands were enlisted and had all expenses paid to be in attendance for long intervals in that most illustrious foreign destination – a holiday beyond anybody’s dreams at public expense.
It is anybody’s guess how much each entourage spent on this Dubai Expo.
Nobody is telling.
Back home, the country suffered the double impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and an economy in negative growth.
Worse, no group that was involved has made a report to the people of PNG what positive benefits have been wrought for the country for our presence and justify the public expense of attending this expo.
This is a capital neglect for which the people must demand a public justification.
Authorities such as the Ombudsman Commission, the Auditor-General, the Finance Department and the Department of the Prime Minister and NEC ought to make these demands or must be held accountable for failing their duties in this as well.
The heads of each department and agency that has attended has a fiduciary to present a report which must be tabled in Parliament.
There was another six months Horticultural Expo in Beijing China in 2019 at which many Papua New Guinean groups attended, again without any evidence of they having attended at all or what benefits were accruing from it.
The Apec Summit 2018, held for the first time on PNG soil, brought in leaders of government and business from every country, big or small, touched by the waters of the Pacific Ocean to Port Moresby.
Four years later, we have no clear picture of the cost and the benefits of this major extravaganza.
Five million kina was said to have been expended on sending an extra-large delegation to the Climate Summit (Cop26) in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct 31 to Nov 13 last year.
Controversy has followed this outing as well on account of the money spent.
The long and short of it is this: how many expos and how summits and conferences has PNG been attending across 47 years of Independence with absolutely nothing to show for it.
On behalf of our readership, we demand full reports and a cost benefit analysis of every trip made after the formation of the new Government to be presented to the new Parliament and for that to be routine.
An inquiry into past expenses of this nature would determine what amounts have been sent down this drain and for perpetrators to be hauled before the law and made to pay.