Police top ‘claims’ against state

THE Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary has the highest number of claims against the State in the last 27 years, a study revealed.
According to the Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG)’s statistics, through the Office of the Solicitor-General (OSG), the police have 3,904 claims from Jan 1, 1992, to April 7, 2019.
The report was revealed last week at the Momase region outreach programme conducted by the DJAG and OSG.
Solicitor-General (S-G) Tauvasa Tanuvasa said there had been an increase in court proceedings of “Claims” against the state by all Government departments and agencies in the last 20 years. (See pie chart)
“According to the 2014 DJAG report, the total judgment debt claim was more than K6.3 billion or an average claim of about K300,000.
“The DJAG is trying to reduce the liability. If decision-makers and employees of the state take responsibility and don’t do things recklessly, it would save the state a lot more money that can be allocated to other services and development to the benefit of everyone”,” Tanuvasa said.
He said the purpose of this programme was to educate and strengthen State-client relations.
“The programme also helps build knowledge and capacity in understanding the process involved in conducting civil litigation and their responsibility in reducing litigation risks.
“This programme also urges staff, sectional heads and department heads to be more disciplined and professional while performing their duties to reduce the high volume of court proceedings against the state and its employees, agencies and organisations,” he added.
“If government officers need legal representative, I would encourage them to seek legal advice from the S-G’s office and not to engage private law firms to represent them. That will reduce cost to the State. The OSG was established to assist all government departments and agencies, workers or employees.
“We want everyone to be responsible and help reduce the number of cases of claims against the state since much money is spent every year on claims,” he said.
Officer in charge of Momase region OSG Salome Maliaki said a good example were cases of people arrested, charged and locked up.
“After some time, the court found insufficient evidence against the accused who is then freed or discharged. He then files a claim against the State (police) under his constitutional rights for being unlawfully detained.
“All officers of the State should act according to the law and under their required legislation to pursue the interest of the state in carrying out their duties,” he added.
Officer in charge of OSG Wewak Enoch Manihambu said: “We have to comply with the law to avoid actions that may result in claims against the State.
“There were many cases of state officers, when on duty, getting themselves into incidents or involved in a nasty accident that resulted in claims against the state.”
The programme is being conducted in all four regions (Momase, Highlands, Southern, Islands).