Department amalgamations to address bloated public service

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, November 6, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

 

WITH the public service machinery chewing up K8.957 billion (70% of budget) in operational costs for 2017, the national government will be looking at the amalgamation of some of the 125 government departments and agencies which some have been described as performing the same functions under various names.

Secretary for Treasury Dairi Vele said the list of departments earmarked will go through a process to look at whether they are going to be amalgamated or so on.

“This is largely driven by Personnel Management, the Prime Minister and NEC by Organization and Audit Manpower Committee which all of us sit on to look at these things in trying to curtail the cost of managing the public service.”

“We are looking at simple, let’s be thematic- we have got various tourism offices potentially doing the same thing. We have rural development DIRD, previously part of Planning Department- we need to ask the questions whether it make sense to throw it back there.”

“We’ve got the national fiscal commission which used to be a part of treasury. Again we need to ask whether it can be house in. I know it is a constitutional office,” Secretary Vele said.

He said efficiency savings was vital in the current economic climate.

“We’ve got a building (Vulupindi Haus) that has a lot of room, rather than having it separately out there we can bring them into the same office to share services and share cost, again we can’t keep talking about the size of the public service and we criticize some of the actions that we are taking.”

“Again when there is good times you can set up all these different offices, there was a time when the three of us (Treasury, Finance, and Planning) were one department.”

“I think when you try to squeeze blood out of the stone, where it makes sense let’s make those tough decisions.”

Page 48 of the 2017 Budget, Volume 1 Economic and Development Policies list out the department and organizations on the radar to amalgamate.

Agency to be Merged include:

-Personnel Service Commission into Department of Personnel Management

-Office of Tourism Arts and Culture into the Tourism Promotion Authority

-Department of Implementation & Rural Development into the Department of National Planning & Monitoring

-Coastal Fisheries Development Agencies into the National Fisheries Authority

-National Economic Fiscal Commission into the Department of Treasury

- National Aids Council Secretariat into the Department of Health

- National Coordination Office of Bougainville Affairs (NCOBA) into PM & NEC

-Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) into the Finance ICT Division

-National Tripartite Consultative Council (NTCC) into Department of Labour & Industry Relation (DLIR)

-National Narcotics Bureau into Department of Justice & Antony General (DJAG),

-Cocoa Coconut Industry into Kokonas Industri Koporation (KIK) and Cocoa Board;

-Office of Urbanisation into the Department of Lands

-Border Development Authority (BDA) into the Department of National Planning & Monitoring (DNPM),

Treasury and Department Of Provincial Affairs (DPLGA);

-Dept. of Public Enterprises into Department of Treasury

-PNG Science Secretariat into the Department of Higher Education Science and Technology

(DHERST);