Staff irk chief

 EAST Sepik Governor, Sir Michael Somare is angry with public servants absent from the provincial administration. 

At 9.30am last Thursday, the Grand Chief, who was accompanied by Attorney-General and Justice Minister Kerenga Kua, walked into the East Sepik provincial administration headquarters and found all the doors locked and no public servant in sight except for those waiting to see him and his electoral officers.

Sir Michael told Kua that the public service machinery in the province was “non-existent and unproductive” as public servants were not available to implement government policies and deliver basic government services to the people of East Sepik.

“As you can see, I have knocked on all the doors but there are no public servants around to answer to my knocking,” he said.

He expressed frustration over the lack of attention and assistance to his office.

“I am not getting any help at all from the public servants here to implement projects, as you can see the public servants are never around,” he said.

Kua said public servants played pivotal roles in implementing government decisions, policies and most importantly government services to the people of Papua New Guinea.

“This country cannot move forward in real development without the invaluable support from the public service machinery, which is the vehicle to delivering government services to our people,” he said.

Sir Michael took Kua on a brief tour of the East Sepik administration headquarters, including the provincial executive council assembly hall.

Kua was in Wewak after returning from Lumi in West Sepik, where he opened a community Justice Services Centre and presented uniforms to village court officials in the Lumi sub-district.