Manager ‘correcting the rot’

 THE Lae urban local level government’s current state of affairs is a spill-over effect of a backlog of unattended issues, city manager Roy Kamen says.

In a statement, he said the city council’s poor administration and service were affecting the city and its residents.

Kamen said the city’s financial and operational problems were the “culmination of matters not attended to for many years.”

“There were no clear policy guidelines, systems, processes and procedures in place to guide the financial and operational aspects of the Lae urban LLG, thus throwing its administration and operations into total confusion before I took over as acting city manager in 2012,” he said.

“Let me stress here that operational matters of the Lae urban LLG were carried out without proper planning and coordination resulting in the poor tracking and monitoring of activities that were carried out.

“No proper records were kept and as a result there has never been proper reporting of the funds used as no records of the quality of work of which the funds were expended on.”

Kamen ordered an external audit that he said  highlighted irregularities.

He said despite some opposition, he had taken measures “to correct the rot”.

“There will be a complete overhaul of its internal financial systems, processes and procedures with the view of improving record-keeping, reporting and accounting of public money,” Kamen said.

“Having identified the problem areas, I am now ready to put into place proper tools of managing the LLG.”