By MATTHEW VARI
THE conduct of the public service was under scrutiny again last week again, with National Court Judge, Justice Ambeng Kandakasi saying that the public service had turned out to be more a bribery service than that that was their mandated role to serve the people.
He said the endemic practice of giving and the accepting bribes in order to receive services in state departments and agencies was now a normal practice to an extent of being compulsory.
“One thing I say in court most of the time is that public servants should be servants to the people,” Justice Kandakasi said.
“Unfortunately it has been the other way around- even though they are paid you have got to give them something they say is lunch money.”
“That mentality has just crept into our society- no public servant is able to give you a service unless you are able to bribe him or her.”
He said it was a terrible trend that starts from the top down.
“Gone are the days where the patrol officers and government workers literally went out to location,” he said.
“During those days you could see services literally given, and in some of the remote places I have been to have communities there that have never seen a judge, before and after independence, they have not seen a lawyer, a policeman, or what a prisoner looks like.”
“I even came across true public servants like a teacher who was teaching grades one to six, and had not been receiving his benefits for years, and that to me was real service.”
He said that if the majority of Papua New Guineans are able to get down to where the real people are, live with them, talk with them, be with them, then they will truly be serving the people.
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