Juffa: Medical supplies must go through proper tender

THE procurement and distribution of medical supplies must be subjected to proper tender and appropriate international standards, says Northern Governor Gary Juffa.
Juffa, the chairman of the special parliamentary committee on public sector reform and service delivery, tabled the committee’s interim report in Parliament yesterday.
He said it was one of the significant financial results of the committee’s work which must be carried out.
The committee has also pushed for the stalled public service payroll audit.
“Once completed, and if followed through by the next committee, it should save millions of kina in restoring integrity to it by cancelling ghost names and dealing with multiple personalities (occupying) single positions,” he said.
The committee also told the National Housing Commission to address the allegations of mismanagement of public housing assets.
The committee’s secretariat held discussions with more than 40 state institutions and individuals “in the quest for immediate and strategic long-term reforms”.
“We intend to (continue) the current momentum right up to the formation of the next Parliament in August,” he said.
“(We) will not stop just because we are heading into elections.
“The public sector reform cannot stop, must not stop and will not stop.
“Therefore we recommend that this committee be made a permanent committee.”
He said the issue of public sector performance had everybody’s attention but the decades of neglect offered no quick solution.
The committee estimates that it will require at least up to five parliamentary terms “of consistent effort of change by leadership of the MPs to bear the fruits of change”.