Teachers leave fares debacle a time bomb

 By Dr Musawe Sinebare

Introduction

The Teachers’ Leave Fare (TLF) issue has been the most intensively pursued by teachers towards the end of school year and just before the school terms starts and it seems most difficult for management annually.  

The TLF issue has been hitting the news in the period leading to the school holidays.  

In fact the TLF issue has been affecting many provincial administrations in Papua New Guinea.

Every province has its share of the problem where the arguments range from insufficient funds, misappropriation and under funding to incorrect computations, denial of leave entitlements, and downright incompetence from the top management right down to the shop-floor operators.

The TLF issue has been highlighted by this writer and many other commentators in the past through both print and electronic media.  

This issue is not a new phenomenon but a recurring one and as such those provincial education advisors, in consultation with their respective provincial administrators, should be able to address the teachers’ leave fare concerns.  

While this issue is being repeatedly voiced by teachers and teachers’ union calling on respective and responsible authorities to address it, those authorities either remain silent or blame others for the debacle.  

A Parliamentary Committee lead by Wabag MP Robert Ganim last year took public consultations throughout the regions and possibly some provincial visits and a report is pending.  

I have emailed a copy of an earlier version of this commentary to the Ganim Committee for its perusal and I am hopeful that some of its recommendations would take into account my advice to improve the administration and management of the Teachers’ Leave Fare issue in PNG.   

The TLF debacle affects some 45,000-plus teachers in PNG’s public school system with total outlay of over K600 million apportioned and featured in provincial government budgets annually because the education function is a decentralised function that comes under the purview of the provincial administration, not the Secretary for Education to manage TLF funds.  

This fund is appropriated annually by the government of the day through the budgetary processes to the respective provinces and comes under direct management by the provincial administrators in coordination with the provincial education advisors.  

The only exception is the National Capital District schools whose teachers’ leave fare issue comes under the Department of Education under the current legislative framework.  

The public, teachers’, teachers’ union and commentators have portrayed the impression that the problem lies with the Department of Education, which is a fallacy because the teachers leave fare funds is allocated to the provinces and budgeted within the provincial budgets with funding from the National Government annually.  

This commentary will attempt to analyse some of the problems highlighted in the print media about the TLF debacle with a view to proposing possible solutions that would assist provincial administrations to manage and administer TLF funds as intended.  Failing that might warrant centralising the TLF funds back to the National Department of Education.

Legal entitlement

Every teacher has a legal entitlement to a biennial leave fare to his/her home province.  

In cases where the spouse is from another province, leave fares to the spouse’s home province is allowed in the alternate leave year when he or she is due for leave.  

Teachers have a right to a leave fare every second year.  

It is the responsibility of the provincial administration to ensure that the TLF fund is managed and effectively administered because the TLF funds are decentralised as part of decentralisation of education functions to the provinces and the funds are featured under their respective provincial budgets.

Government funding

The PNG Government, through its annual national grant appropriation, provides TLF funds to each province based on the number of teachers in each province as required by the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments.  

The province is responsible for preparing the annual leave fare budget because it knows the teachers occupying teaching positions in each province.  

The province, through the provincial education advisor, should have a fair idea as to who is teaching where and their personal particulars, including number of dependents and their leave destinations.  

This figure does not take into consideration where teachers’ leave destinations are in any one-year, even if they are due for leave to their spouse’s home province.  

Such is the responsibility of the provincial administration through their respective divisions of education to collect and manage teachers’ personal and professional information and eventually make decisions based on the data or information held.  

It was reported in the media that the government allocates K20m annually for the TLF (Post Courier, 16/01/08, p.5). That amount was disputed by one provincial administrator who, accused the government for not providing the province its requested TLF fund of K1.5m but instead only allocated K900,000 (Goma, 2008a). 

Root causes for the TLF debacle

The media, especially the print media, covered the TLF issue with some intensity to draw the attention of the authorities.  

What are some of the reasons behind the TLF issue?  

An in-depth document analysis is required to pinpoint the reasons why the TLF issue has attracted so much attention in the media lately.  We are able to identify the following reasons:

• Diversion of TLF funds

Teachers in Western Highlands alleged that out of the K1.6m allocated for TLF, only K835,000 was spent on 70 teaches out of 200 and the rest allegedly diverted elsewhere by the provincial administration (Gumuno 2007 and The National, 16/01/08, p.5).  

It was alleged that the then Simbu Provincial Administrator diverted K50,000 of TLF funds to foot his legal bill (The National, 19/12/07, p.3). How widespread is the case of diverting TLF throughout PNG?  We can only assume at this stage that some degree of diversion of this fund is possible in some provinces which depleted the appropriated funds and thereby leaving fewer funds for teachers leave fare in a province.

• Corrupt practices

Teachers in the National Capital District claimed that corrupt practices were involved by the officers responsible for administering the TLF with the travel agents dealing with their leave destinations (Goma 2008b, Gerawa 2008 and Post Courier, 14/01/08, p. 8).  

Teachers in Morobe blamed their officers’ tardiness in executing their duties professionally (Umau, 2008).  

We can safely assume that corrupt practices by public officials, if not corrected, can impact seriously on the availability of TLF funds in the provinces.

• Under funding/shortfall

The Central provincial administrator blamed the TLF debacle squarely on the Education Minister and his government for under funding the requested TLF funds of K1.5m. He alleges that his province was instead allocated K900,000 in 2007 (Goma, 2008a).  

Budget shortfalls were reportedly experienced in NCD (Goma 2008c), Morobe (Ami, 2007) and possibly other provinces as well.  

Under funding is the consequence of poor records of the numbers of teachers and their particulars kept at the provinces.  

Under funding could result from overall government priority and availability of funds when considering other equally important items. 

• Incompetence

Teachers in Morobe (Post Courier, 15/01/08, p.5), Central (Goma 2008c), Western Highlands (Gumuno, 2008), and NCD (The National, 19/12/07, p.3), all claimed or alleged that officers who are supposed to administer TLF are incompetent and called for their immediate sacking.  

The incompetent issue is a matter the provincial administrator must address because all such positions come under the authority of the provincial administrator.  

Incompetence of the provincial administration staff should not be the reason to deny a teacher who is teaching and contributing to educating students in that province. 

• Incorrect information (data)

The then acting Secretary for Education, Luke Taita, was quoted as saying that teachers were partly to be blamed for the delay in processing their leave fare entitlements because they provided false information (Post Courier, 9/01/08, p.5).  

The national president of the PNGTA, Tommy, Hecko has diplomatically stated many facts contributing towards the TLF debacle in a press statement (The National, 2008, 18 Jan, p.31) and three such points are: 

“PNGTA calls on provinces affected to ensure diligence in the administration of leave fares at all times. Revelation of discrepancies in issuance of leave fares in certain provinces is only an indication of mal-administration at the provincial level.

“PNGTA calls on the TSC, NDOE and the provincial authorities to ensure that proper personnel records for teachers are kept in order to administer their entitlements, including leave fares. These records must be updated yearly.

“PNGTA reminds TSC, NDOE and all provincial authorities that every year teachers complete duty resumption forms with teacher personal information details.  

Who is responsible for all these data supplied by teachers? Why are these data not on records?  Does administrative [sic] authorities have personal master register?”

This author is aware of this situation to be true for at least two provinces that rely heavily on paper-based information.  

We might suggest here that the divisions of education in the provinces fail to maintain a proper record of teachers and fail to administer their leave fare efficiently.  

In fact it has been reported that many government departments have no records management in PNG (Arek, 2008).  The ineffective information management system has contributed more towards TLF debacle.  The PNGTA statement puts the blame on the provincial administrations for the ineffective administration of the TLF that contribute towards the TLF debacle.  

It is obvious that the provincial administrations have difficulty administering the TLF funds effectively.