040814ABG MAKING REAL PROGRESS TOWARDS ACHIEVING HIGH AUTONOMY...

040814ABG MAKING REAL PROGRESS TOWARDS ACHIEVING HIGH AUTONOMY
BY JENNIFER NKUI

The Autonomous Bougainville Government has made real progress towards achieving high autonomy promised by the Bougainville Peace Agreement in the last two years.
This was noted by the ABG Minister for Natural Resources Michael Oni during the small scale mining workshop in Buka last week.
He said the progress has included;
• Developing our own unique draft mining law to be debated by the ABG parliament next week
• Our new Bougainville Public Service Law which sets up our Bougainville Public Service separate from the PNG Public Service and
• Our own ABG Public Finance Management Act under which the ABG administers all finances
Mr. Oni pointed out that with these laws, the ABG now has many powers and a new high level of flexibility to organize its work on mining and other important subjects.
He said in particular, we can make our own decisions about composition of our public service.
He added that if we need capacity in the mining department, we can quickly take the necessary steps.

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