Secretariat to have 11 positions

By LULU MARK
THE Department of Personnel Management (DPM) will approve 11 positions for the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Secretariat as soon as possible, secretary Taies Sansan says.
She said this during the second public hearing of the Special Parliamentary Committee on GBV yesterday.
Committee chairman and Alotau MP Charles Abel asked Sansan about what was needed to be done to approve the 11 positions and stressed the importance of having a GBV Secretariat established and positions approved before the next Parliament sitting.
Sansan said DPM did not receive the terms of reference (TOR) for the positions for approval despite the Department for Community Development, Youth and Religion stating earlier that the TORs were ready and presented to DPM.
She said she would check with her department and get back to the committee with advice.
Deputy committee chairman and East Sepik Governor Allan Bird asked Sansan how quickly could the approval be made of the TORs presented to her office.
Sansan said addressing GBV, which included establishment of the secretariat, was the priority of the Government so it could be done quickly.
She assured the committee that the approval would be made quickly as soon as the documents were received by DPM, as long as the positions were funded.
Bird said of K7.93 million allocated to address GBV, K800,000 was allocated for salaries to fund the positions.