NGO: Public servants must return to Gumine

A NON-governmental organisation from Gumine in Chimbu is unhappy with public servants in the district living and working out of Kundiawa.
The Bomai Grassroots Rights Activists Group, which claimed to represent the people of Gumine district, said public servants who were supposed to live and work in the district “have not done so and people have to travel to Kundiawa and back every day to access services”.
Group leader Robert Kama said the group, which is a member of Transparency International, “sees this as not in the best interests of the people whom the public service mechanism was established to serve”.
Kama said the group had called on provincial authorities to, among others, ensure public servants who were supposed to work in the district and operating out of Kundiawa return, and those who did not want to return be put off the payroll and replaced with committed personnel.
They want all public property bought for the district to be sent to the district and not held in Kundiawa.
Kama said the group was concerned people were being denied government services “just because some public servants decided to live and operate away from their work place”.
Kama said the NGO had tried to lodge a petition with provincial authorities last month but had been prevented from doing so by police.
“It is a total breakdown in the public service mechanism in the district and the people are being denied their rights to government services,” he added.