Sode slams govt’s recruitment drive

 By KEVIN PAMBA

A SENIOR Papua New Guinean company executive has decried the increasing number of foreigners coming into the country and taking up “basic jobs” nationals can perform.

Chief executive officer of PNG Sustainable Development Program, David Sode was also critical of the quality and quantity of education in PNG.

Sode said PNG is facing a serious problem when foreigners continue to take up basic jobs in large numbers at the expense of Papua New Guineans who can perform in those positions.

“If Filipinos are coming here and taking up basics jobs that can be performed by our people, there is something seriously wrong,” Sode said. 

He was speaking at the Open Day of Divine Word University in Madang as guest of the Faculty of Arts yesterday. 

The annual event, staged by students and staff, showcased the university’s academic programmes and activities. 

This year’s theme  was “Commitment to total quality assurance”.

Sode bemoaned the quality and quantity of PNG’s education system and challenged students and staff of DWU to raise the benchmark.

Sode, who is a lawyer by profession and former Internal Revenue commissioner, said universities in PNG had to address quality issues in their academic programmes.

He said money to provide quality education to greater numbers of Papua Guineans was not a problem but “management is”.

Sode said the revenue from the large mineral and petroleum resource projects would educate more Papua New Guineans if the money was managed well.

Sode cited PNGSDP’s education and social development programmes as examples of how revenue from mineral wealth could be managed well and redistributed to the needy. 

Sode said the aim of PNGSDP was to educate the majority of children of Western province.

He said by next year PNGSDP and Western hoped to pay the school fees of all students in the province. 

 Sode, who has two sons studying at DWU, is among several high profile Papua New Guineans who attended the annual Open Day that the students and staff use to reach out to the wider public.

The PNGSDP is among various private and public sectors partners of DWU’s faculties and departments to take part in the open day.