Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform and Service Delivery

Speech by the Chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform and Service Delivery, the Honorabble Gary Juffa- on the occasion of signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Committee and the PNG Public Services Commission

It gives me great satisfaction today to execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between my Committee (SPCPSR) and Public Services Commission (PSC) of PNG.
Over 3 years ago my Committee embarked on a journey in looking at PSC and pursuing the occasion to seek their co operation in answering one of the Country’s most vital question-
Who is to be responsible for the” National Agenda” though the consistent and continuous enforcement of efficient and effective administration of the Public Sector? It is the only vehicle to deliver the people’s “National Agenda” as expressed through Parliament.

Today, we have started the journey of answering this valuable question.

In an environment where Departmental heads change frequently and where Governments come and go and suffer destabilization every 18 months, somebody has to be a constant.

Most successful countries have a steady Public Sector administration which keeps the nation’s agenda rolling along.

Whilst PNG is not short of national long-term plans, medium and short terms plans, there appears to be weakness in the actions of combining all sectors together to achieve the total of these plans; what I call “the National Agenda”.

The Committee has assessed that it would be worthwhile re-examining the powers and functions of the PSC and the Department of Personnel Management and focus on re-branding the PSC and widening its current constitutional powers to: