‘Funky ministry structures’ cabinet

I’D like to air my opinion on the current ministry structures and the 11th parliament’s ministerial allocations.
Funky ministry structures were created and half-baked MPs given wrong ministerial allocations.
The ministry of oil palm and ministry of coffee as well as ministry of livestock should all come under one ministry, the ministry of agriculture, as they all have the same kind of work, functions and codes.
Foreign affairs and international trade should come under one ministry inclusive of immigration as well because they all relate to international affairs and functions.
The ministries of police and correctional services should not be joined or merged as these two ministries has the largest components of departmental functions with the largest workforce and largest infrastructure facilities around the country.
Therefore, they should be catered for under separate ministries.
Labour and immigrations are two different functional areas.
Labour is to do with employment and immigration is to do with foreigners coming in and going out of the country.
Placing them under a single ministry is completely wrong.
The allocations look a little okay but a few ministries require proper succession planning and allocations should have been done according to merit and public service competency.
Also the structure is not created at the right time which we need to realign the ministry agencies.
Such a realignment will cost extra tax payers’ money for operational purposes when we already have high inflation, a high employment rate, world food crisis and less in bank reserves which result in the fall in our Kina value in this time of economic recession.
Proper planning and discussions should have been done first before all this happens.
I guess we need to fix this as intellectuals and professionals to ensure we do what is right for the people of this country.

Jerry Marai
Port Moresby