The NAC has come to a standstill

I HAVE kept quiet but by keeping quiet, I have done injustice to the very people whom I have been mandated to serve as a public servant of my beloved Papua New Guinea.
What I have to say is sad but true, the operations of the National AIDS Council have come to a standstill.
This is the result of people who have become power hungry and, at the same time, greedy for money, both Papua New Guineans and expatriates.
The former NAC assistant director, Romanus Pakure, was suspended when the new assistant director, Web Kanawi, was appointed last year.
Mr Kanawi has never consulted or had conducted a meeting with the NAC Secretariat (NACS) programme managers since his appointment. It has been a one-man show.
The NAC is being run by two people and one private sector organisation (named).
The public servants in the NAC have been technically made dormant through an advertisement of all senior positions last October. This has displaced everyone in the organisation.
The advertisement of the positions and the new restructure was never approved by the Department of Personnel Management, which has the sole authority to approve restructure and job descriptions for all Government-funded and mandated bodies.
The staff morale at NAC is very low at the moment and this is causing a lot of suspicion and anxiety. Many senior managers have since resigned.
Boomerang AID is at its best at the NACS. AusAID, through its Sanap Wantaim programme, has pushed the NAC to allow JTAI, a consulting firm alleged to be owned by people within AusAID and Sanap Wantaim, to do the accounting system for NACS, which has been subcontracted Deloite Tomatsu.
The contract is worth millions of kina and NAC, as a Government department, and AusAID did not advertise the contract for public bidding.
The NACS is dead. That’s why it is not coordinating the response as it should have with the spiralling rate of HIV/AIDS in East New Britain and other provinces as reported in the media.
Allocations of grants to organisations in the fight against AIDS in PNG are given to Australian-based NGOs and those controlled by Australians while PNG agencies fight for the crumbs.
I call on the authorities to launch an investigation into this multi-million racket.

Whistle blower
Port Moresby