Why not set up departmental sweep teams?

NO one can deny that the current public service machinery has been crippled over the years.
A virus named “corruption” that lives in all government offi­ces has caused the fall of the public service in the past 20 years.
There have been bribes, dubious appointments and collaborations with criminals to steal the state’s coffers.
Central agencies such as de­partments of finance, treasury, planning, justice and attorney-general, education, health, lands and physical planning, housing, etc, have at least spotted this virus within their various offices and sections.
The previous regime formed the Task Force Sweep team chaired by Sam Koim and tried to fight the virus.
But the virus has multiplied and the sweep team could not wipe it out within a short time.
What Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Public Service Mi­nister Sir Puka Temu need to do is to establish various sweep teams in all governments departments.
These sweep teams have to be made up of honest, courageous and intelligent public servants led by legal officers within each go­vernment department.
While members of the sweep team will continue to perform their normal duties and responsibilities, their terms of reference should be well defined to achieve their objectives.
I believe that once this is done, a lot of corrupted public servants would  be exposed.

Joel Nava
Port Moresby