Govt must explain spending for COP26

HE other daily’s front page about the K5 million COP26 trip and the Government spending big on a 62-member delegation to Glasgow, Scotland, needs to be fully explain to the tax payers and the people of PNG.
Let’s have a comparison: I was one of the National Parliament Speaker’s 9-person delegation to China on PNG-China trade policies led by the late speaker and former prime minister Sir William Skate.
Our parliamentary delegation was made up of Sir William, the late Warren Dutton (speaker’s advisor), the late Kila Gimana (first secretary office of the speaker), former Eastern Highland governor the late Aita Ivarator representing the government, two parliamentary staff officials, the speaker’s wife and a private secretary.
As the as former member for Bulolo, I went as a representative for the Opposition.
Our delegation was well picked and with fair representation from both sides and the cost of our two-week trip was much less than this Glasgow team.
Firstly, the people should be told the names and roles of each individual on the trip, their purpose for going and what they are going to bring back to give to the country.
Prime Minister James Marape, the National Executive Council (NEC) and Minister Wera Mori know very well that PNG is in a pandemic and is trying to get some control over the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and Delta variant, yet they still went ahead and spent K5 million for the huge delegation trip to travel to Glasgow.
Also, taking into account the current state of the economy and financial problems due to the pandemic, as well as preparations for next year’s elections, they should have reduced the number of that delegation to at least 10 or 15 to cut down costs.
This type of mismanagement of public funds by our politicians and bureaucrats has made many citizens lose trust in the Government.
Our Government, especially the PM and NEC, must put their foot down.
2022 is not far away and PNG has a lot of issues to overcome, yet we have been spending unwisely on unplanned expenses and events and we continue to borrow money from overseas.
On another note, employees are facing another hurdle during this pandemic – the “no jab, no job” policy.
Unvaccinated employees, in both the public and private sector, are losing their jobs and have no way to look after their families.
Can we find a win-win solution for all before it’s too late?

Samson C Napo
Former Bulolo MP