Keynote Address of Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Hon. James Marape MP at the 2023 Provincial Governors' Conference in Port Moresby.
Marape - Rosso Government 2022-2027, Sunday 04th June 2023.
Introduction and salutation
Thank you, Master of Ceremonies, for your kind word of introduction. Let me acknowledge the: • Motu Koitabu and Koiari people of Central Province for their willingness to give their customary land for Port Moresby city to be built as our nation’s capital city and seat of authority for our beautiful culturally diverse country, Papua New Guinea, • Minister for Provincial and Local Governments Affairs, Honorable. Soroi Marepo Eoe, • Honorable Provincial Governors, • Acting Secretary, Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs, Mr. Joseph Warus, • Departmental Heads, • Provincial Administrators, • Officers from the Department of Provincial Governments and Local Level Governments Affairs, • Officers from the State Agencies, • Representatives of development partners and stakeholders, • Other invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, It is my greatest pleasure to address you today in this conference on the theme “Continuing Dialogue to Empower Provinces for Improved Service Delivery, Economic Growth and Self-Reliance”. I want to appreciate your efforts and thank you for your leadership to our people in your respective provinces of our country. You plan, and implement your budgets and are achieving remarkable outcomes that are worthy of your strong will and commitment to build your provinces and help build a modern Papua New Guinea. Let me at the outset state here that my government believes in reforms. We now have 48 years of experiences where we know our inherent weaknesses which we must isolate and remove. That is the work of reforms. Reforms that must bring about drastic, positive changes! On Friday, I met with Ministers and Departmental and agency heads and called on them to give an account of their performance and achievements for the last 6 months. We have no time to rest on our laurels. We must be in the business of achieving outcomes for our people. We must deliver effectively on our mandated responsibilities to our people at large. Reforming our systems, reviewing our legislation, and creating an enabling environment for development to thrive must be paramount. Let us be reminded that we all come from villages and therefore, our provinces, districts, LLGs and ward facility levels must be operational for services to flow to the lowest level. We will one day retire to a place that we helped build. Our government is committed to supporting the provincial governments to undertake the work of supporting service delivery in the provinces. Our budget to the provinces collective is around 31.23% of overall government expenditure since 2020. These are four hard years, but we are committed to maintaining and in some places increasing our expenditure to the provincial governments. This includes increases to the provincial health authorities and the development budget outlays. In terms of actual allocation, except for one or two provinces, all provinces continue to receive significant allocation of resources. It may not include significant and specific interventions that we are making to supplement district allocations on a case-by-case basis. It also does not include donor financing of important technical assistance or development projects. But I think the most important thing to note is that the government is committed to empowering the provincial governments to be self sufficient and to depend less on Waigani. It is a long journey but one that we are willing to take. I want to present to you my government’s serious commitment to address some of the political, economic, social, and administrative issues we are pursuing. We will address these issues in an open dialogue. Let me expound on seven important key programs going forward.Decentralization of powers and functions to the Provincial Governments
First, is the Decentralization of powers and functions to the Provincial Governments. For the last past 48 years, as a nation, we have been operating and delivering services to our people in a highly decentralised government system. It has united us as one people and one nation. This has worked and is working for us. There is no doubt about it. We all have worked very hard and built these decentralised government systems and institutions spending billions of public monies over the years. The decentralised government system is here to stay as guaranteed by our National Constitution. The Marape – Rosso government is committed to honoring this constitutional directive and paying a very close attention on the importance of decentralization impacts on the national development. Our provincial Government system must be supported and strengthened through key reforms. One of this is to refine Decentralisation that we already have to make it more functional for effective service delivery.Decentralization Reforms - Papua New Guinea
My government is adamant that decentralization reforms must continue to bring about positive changes to the lives of our people. The Inter-government Financing Reforms is part of the Decentralization Reforms. I must commend the National Economic and Fiscal Commission on the current review of Inter-government Financing Arrangements. This is critical to ensure the aspirations of having a workable decentralization system is complemented with an integrated financing system. This means to say that all fragmented financing arrangements be placed in one basket to recoup parallel funding arrangements, elevate provinces’ fiscal capacities, and promote financial accountability. An overarching Policy on Decentralization is an important tool for driving the different aspects of Decentralization Reforms. My department will work with DPLGA to ensure this is delivered before 2023 ends. But it will need the support of all of us to make the reforms work. It will also need the support of all the open members to finally get the important changes that we all want to make for our provinces. Second, the government is committed to implementing the recent Governors’ Consultative Meeting Resolutions. You have highlighted on some pressing issues that impedes on our development aspirations and we will implement all in a case-by-case approach. I recognize that there are a number of important resolutions that we need to work through carefully. I want to confirm today that my government is committed and will aim to implement all 20 resolutions this year. At this juncture, looking at the bigger picture, I would like to announce the formation of a Bipartisan Committee that will evaluate the current Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local Level Governments and propose a new law or make changes to the current proposed Organic Law on Decentralization and push for it to be enacted. This Committee will be led by Honorable Governor for Morobe Province, Luther Wenge and deputized by Governor for East New Britain Province, Honorable Michael Marum.