Zurenuoc stresses delivery of services

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Friday, May 20, 2011

PUBLIC servants in the provinces must stand and deliver, the Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs Secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc said yesterday.
Zurenuoc said under the decentralisation of powers, the government pumped millions of kina and resources to the provinces unlike in the past when everything had been concentrated in Waigani.
He told deputy provincial administrators, divisional heads, and other senior public servants from the four highlands provinces who attended a two-day workshop on inter-governmental financing and service delivery in Mt Hagen that if they did not perform the powers and resources given to them would be easily withdrawn.
He said the government wanted public servants on the ground to deliver much needed goods and services to the people and it was their responsibility to make it happen.
“You and I must show government that we are capable of managing the resources properly and deliver the services,” he said.
He said that since 1995, goods and services had started to decline and were not reaching the people.
Zurenuoc said that was caused by a number of factors but one of the main ones was that public servants were confused over their roles and responsibilities.
He said many public servants did not know what their colleagues did and there was confusion on who did what.
He said in the past there had been no stakeholders meetings to discuss what government agencies were doing.
Zurenuoc said the Works Department seemed to operate in isolation as did most other line agencies.
He stressed that positive changes must be fostered.