Politics ruining public service machinery

THE key to provincial, district and local level government development depends entirely on the shoulders of governors, open MPs (Members of Parliament), provincial and district administrators and LLG council managers.
Right now, PNG politics has found its way into the public service machinery and destroyed our good public servants over the last 20 years leaving many senior public servants out due to the “serve the master or shift out” syndrome.
There was an amendment made over the appointments of provincial and district administrators by a current senior MP whereby governors and open MPs must be consulted and agree to the three proposed candidates’ names and choices before forwarding to the National Executive Council (NEC) to be appointed.
This is a bad law.
This is the root cause of the breakdown of PNG’s public service today.
Provincial and district administrators must apply for the position and be appointed based on qualifications and merits in order to rebuild public trust and confidence in our public service.
If we don’t fix these problems quickly, many good public servants will either leave for private sectors companies or continue to serve but will not give their best when unqualified political appointees are in control. I would like to see our country’s public service machinery revert back to its former glory days after next year’s national general elections in order to turn this nation around.

Samson C Napo
Former Bulolo MP