Officers ordered back to Kerema

National, Normal
Source:

ISAAC NICHOLAS

GULF provincial administration has been directed to abandoned its “remote control” Port Moresby office and return to the provincial capital, Kerema.
“I am concerned about remote control administration,” Public Service Minister Peter O’Neill said last Friday.
Mr O’Neill said he has asked Personnel Management secretary John Kali and chief secretary Manasupe Zurenouc to order acting provincial administrator Simon Peter to run his administration in Kerema.
“I understand they have set up an office in Port Moresby and are running the province by remote control,” he said.
“I will ask Mr Kali and Mr Zurenouc to direct the provincial administrator to go back to where he is supposed to run the province and that is in Kerema and not in Port Moresby.”
Mr O’Neill made it clear that failure by the administration to return to Kerema would result in disciplinary actions taken on the provincial administrator, including charges under the Public Service Management Act.
He said this after he was questioned by the Public Employees Association (PEA) Kerema branch during the PEA triennial conference at the March Girls Resort outside Port Moresby.
The Kerema PEA executives asked Mr O’Neill whether there was a new provincial administrator and that provincial administration in Gulf had come to a stand-still.
They claimed that public servants were not working while the acting provincial administrator is operating from Port Moresby.
PEA president Michael Malabag said the Gulf provincial administration has set up an office in Port Moresby and is running the province by “remote control” at the expense of the people.
Mr Malabag said the Gulf provincial administration had been a problem area affecting the public service machinery in the province.
He said he had raised the issue on a number of occasions through the media but nothing seemed to be working for the province as the  administration is still operating from Port Moresby.
Mr O’Neill said the position of provincial administrator had gone before the courts after
the suspended administrator challenge his suspension at the National Court.
He said the acting administrator remained until such time that serious allegations made against the suspended provincial administrator were resolved and National Executive Council made a decision on a permanent appointment.