Opportunities for Hela and Jiwaka

HELA province’s founding governor Anderson Agiru laid down the ground rules several weeks for prospering his new province.
The rules are quite simple.
He told his people: No alcohol, no violence and no laziness. All must be accountable for their actions, all government programmes must follow a plan and government must be open and transparent.
Among the ground rules are:
lFor a total alcohol ban;
lFor public servants to clock in and clock out of work; and
lFor all government vehicles to be clearly marked with “Z” or “P” plates and have the logo and colours of Hela clearly displayed and all tints to be taken off.
The governor wants council presidents, public servants and administrators to stay in Hela and manage their responsibilities rather than gallivant all over the country.
All of these will be contained in a master development plan encompassing the plans of the provincial government, each of the three electorates of Tari-Pori, Komo-Margarima and Koroba-Lake Kopiago.
This master plan will complement and support
the national 30-year
strategic development plan and Vision 2050.
The governor announced that he is putting in place a secretariat comprising professionals in many different fields to put together the master plan and coordinate its implementation.
Agiru and his brother governor, Dr William Tongamp of Jiwaka, have this unique opportunity to build their provinces up by simply not following the mistakes of other provinces and by reinforcing workable programmes of the others as well.
It will not be easy but they take government at a time when the economy is robust and growing. They take over provinces where resources are plentiful, even if much of Jiwaka’s resources are not as much as those of Hela.
But more than anything, they must do the small things right now, right from the start. That means stopping drugs and alcohol consumption which is rampant in both provinces. This means they harness and bring into their provincial economy the productive potential of their youth and their women. This means ensuring that every person in the province is counted and that each person is asked to account for his or her time and be held responsible for their actions.
Good actions must be rewarded and quickly and the same for criminal behaviour.
Systems and processes of government must be respected. Engagement of civil servants must follow all the processes from advertisement of jobs, to proper conduct of interviews and for the selection criterion to be strict as well as fair.
PNG has gone awry simply because the simple things in life have been neglected or corrupted. Corruption has become entrenched and is eating away at the innards of Papua New Guinea only because very simply rules and processes have been abandoned as people
moved to take short cuts to jobs and fast gain.
And this is why there is a change for a new lease of life in these two youngest provinces in the country, to change over a new leaf, as it were.
We are yet to hear from the Jiwaka governor but we have heard from the Hela governor and the latter seems to be on the right path by arranging for the small things to be done right.
Societies, governments and nations appear huge, unwieldy and complicated only because they are made up of simple individual parts pulling together.
Get the individual parts to pull together in one direction – the right direction – with good, efficient, no-nonsense management and you will never go wrong.