NRI reviews govt structure

National, Normal
Source:

TRAVERTZ MABONE

THE National Research Institute (NRI) has taken a central role in the review of decentralisation as part of the process of restructuring the provincial governments of  PNG.
The NRI showed the lead at the “Research update on sub-national governance” seminar yesterday when it met with the Constitutional Law Reform Committee and the National Fiscal Policy Commission (NFPC) to discuss their analytical and policy-relevance work on reforming the provincial and district levels.
Senior researcher Dr Alphonse Gelu said  many of the governing policies were not properly  followed, thus the need for a more coherent policy process in PNG.
NFPC chief executive Dr Nau Badu also agreed and made known in his presentation that there was obviously dissatisfaction with the current state of service delivery to provinces and districts.
Dr Badu said  a careful detailed design process, which was approved last year, was implemented this year and would run until 2014.
He said  the progress of the detailed design reform mechanism had positive results from districts and provincial governments reporting back to their relevant heads.
The major concern for the roll-out of services into the provincial and district areas fell on the provincial and district administrators who were responsible for the delivery of basic goods and services from the Government as they had a significant role in service delivery.
The provincial and district administrators were urged to be accountable for various aspects of development and to be responsible for their areas.
The research is important for the Government as it provided in-depth knowledge of the status of the developmental issues in the country, thus providing a better understanding which can be used as a measure to formulate policies that can effectively deal with the issues.
For the first time, the reform agendas are driven by technical teams made up of professional PNG public servants.