Shift in government policy supported

A NEWS article in The National last month reported that the works minister and his department secretary were both advocating partnerships between districts and his department on the maintenance of rural roads
and the need to involve local contractors and local content in projects.
This is good news indeed for the rural communities as improved and sustainable road access will go a long way towards assisting them take their produce to the market.
With the government’s current investment emphasis in the agriculture sector and other non-mining, non-oil and non-gas
sectors, this concept will encourage farmers to produce more crops.
While these partnership has already involved six district development authorities (DDAs), it is suggested here that such arrangements should also cover the infrastructure and rehabilitation maintenance projects under the DSIP funds governance framework.
This concept in itself may require the Works Department to overhaul its operational capabilities, like the utilisation of equipment and the recruitment of qualified people to be based in the districts to assist with the technical expertise.
It is worth noting here that the Works Department’s technical experts were based in the districts in the ’70s and ’80s through its plant and transport branch or
PTB, and it did well helping to maintain district roads, water supplies and sanitation, buildings and general station maintenance.
The government should decentralise such technical departments to the districts so they can help with projects secured under DSIP, PIP or donor funding.
Other government departments or agencies should get their qualified officers into the districts as well.
Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Richard Maru’s take on the public sector reforms to have regional offices in the provinces and districts is
timely and will boost service delivery.
I support this shift in government policy because it will help speed up services delivery.

Lawrence Billy
Lae