Govt to merge state owned enterprises to save cost: PM
Port Moresby: The Papua New Guinea government in its cost-saving exercise to cut back on the massive public service bill will start streamlining and amalgamating State agencies and departments.
Prime Minister James Marape said the government wants to make Waigani very light to save cost.
“We are asking all state owned enterprises (SOEs) out there to show relevance for your existence, (and) your existence must have some economic rational to it,” he said.
“If there are opportunities to subsume them into mainstream government agencies, our government will be in the process of streamlining and creating efficiency in the system. If some of these agencies mandate can be run by other government departments, we will subsume so that we will save cost.
“Public service wage salary continues to grow by the day, and so we must increase efficiency in our public service, removing some agencies, amalgamating agencies, transferring functions to provinces and districts to allow Waigani to remain very light up at the top is the intention of our government and this indicates where we are going.”
Mr Marape said the government’s intention when Parliament passed the Bill to abolish the Border Development Authority (BDA).
“Cost saving in terms of no duplication in the performance of duties, we will be realigning many agencies of State similar to what we are doing to BDA.”
Mr Marape said some of the functions run by BDA will be transferred to the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs while some will go to the PNG Defence Force.