PM warns civil servants

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
PRIME Minister James Marape has warned public servants to remain neutral and not be drawn into politicking as the national general election 2022 approaches.
Marape, who spoke to secretaries and senior departmental staff at Apec Haus yesterday, said the departments were reminded to take stock of where they are in terms of their key performance indicators.
“The bureaucratic functions must continue to work and take stock of where we are,” he said.
“Work must not slow down in the face of the 2022 election, and there must be a clear demarcation of the roles and responsibilities of the politicians and the public service.
“Making a case in point, historically speaking about one year is lost before and after elections, when we facing the issue of writs and when we come back to form government in that year almost no activities take place as far as the work of the public service is concerned.”
Marape said, in PNG, politics was intertwined with the way the executive government functioned.
“I wanted to lay down the rule and make clear that politicians have their space and public service have their space, when politics play out, public servants must not engage in politics, but must carry on with work,” he said.
Marape told the ministers and senior public servants to be responsive and by the end of the year they would take stock of their performance.
“My government did issue a series of key performance indicators and PM’s Department will be visiting all departments to take stock of what has been achieved in two years,” he said.