Liquor licensing queried

By GABRIEL LAHOC
THE body largely responsible for controlling the sale of alcohol in the country, the liquor licensing board, is powerless to effectively perform its obligations, chief of the liquor licensing committee, Manasupe Zurenuoc says.
Zurenuoc, who is secretary of Provincial and Local Level Government, made the comment at the Alcohol Abuse symposium in Lae yesterday.
Zurenuoc pointed out that the LLBs under the functions of the provincial governments “do not have uniformity in their roles and structures”.
“The powers of the LLBs are with the different provincial governments,” he said.
“Only 10 have legal frameworks and rules in place, in some provinces, it does not exist legally,” he said.
He said some provinces had only two LLB officers, making it impossible to do their jobs properly.
Zurenuoc did not name the provinces without LLBs, but challenged provincial governments to seriously take ownership of this important function.
“The provincial governments should be prepared to allocate funds to these offices,” he said.
Zurenuoc said the national government was looking into arming the LLBs to become more efficient, “which involves possible funding of more vehicles as part of improved mobility to cover their region”.