The absolute state of PNG, page-16

Slow news lately but something on the Dept of Petroleum and Energy…

9 August 2019: Johannes Kaman, anational resource economist who has worked around the world on various oil and gas and mining projects said some "people in senor positions in the DPE ... are not qualified and do not have the skills, knowledge and the technical expertise to be there."

This is a classic case of wantoks (nepotism) in action. The senior roles were externally advertised, then mysteriously the ads were pulled and advertise dinternally. Meanwhile, incompetent people are acting in those positions and will likely get the full time positions as their wantok will look after them and give them the internally advertised positions. There is no regard for performance, results or accountability, just the fortnightly paycheck.

The PNG public service is full of people in positions that are not capable of performing their jobs, empty positions as the department has no money to fill them (and pay rent), literal dead people and people who don't turn up. The last two have been estimated at 4000-6000 "people" getting paid when they have either died, do not exist or simply don't turn up. However if you are the boss and you have access to this "person's" bank account, why would you take them off the payroll?

How do you fix this? A National ID system would be a good start, oh wait.