Papua New Guinea governor wants audit conducted on statutory bodies

Papua New Guinea’s Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta, wants an audit conducted on provincial and local level government accounts.

He blamed the “total lack of leadership and transparency at all levels” for the problems in the province.

“During the 10 years that I have been away, it’s sad to say that my province had deteriorated in everything – from processes to procedures of governance,” Haiveta said.

“There was a total lack of leadership and a total lack of transparency at all levels which resulted in major failures. Of course our basic human indicators are showing very badly.

“It’s shameful but we have to acknowledge that education standards in the province have deteriorated badly.

“The health sector also suffered. Besides Western, Gulf is one of the two TB (tuberculosis) hotspots in the country.

“It’s a poor state of affairs and once I take stock of the state of affairs in the province, an audit will be conducted right through to statutory bodies that we are in charge of.”

He said appropriate actions would be taken if needed be. “Actions will be taken to make sure we have a clean slate before implementing any new decisions,” Haiveta said. Meanwhile, he said there were vacancies at the provincial government that needed to be filled in.

Blamed the “total lack of leadership and transparency at all levels” for the problems in the province.