Prime Minister Hon. James Marape today announced a comprehensive review across all government departments and provincial governments. This review mandates every government department and agency, as well as provincial governments, to report on their activities and achievements.

Prime Minister Marape emphasised the critical role of the Department of Prime Minister and NEC along with the Department of National Planning in supervising this extensive review.

“This accountability call precedes a series of pivotal national events including the National Census, the upcoming Provincial and Local Level Government Elections, a massive mobilisation effort targeting the nation’s youth for developmental purposes, and the continued expansion of the disciplined forces later this year,” he said.

“This comprehensive accountability review marks a significant step towards enhancing transparency, efficiency, and service delivery across all levels of government in Papua New Guinea.”

The Prime Minister underscored the mandate of the Pangu Pati-led Government, stating, “All Government departments and agencies will be asked to give an account of what they have been doing under the Pangu Pati-led Government. Our mandate has been clear: When we took over Government in 2019, we wanted to spread out development to all parts of our country. We aimed to ensure that all children return to school, to empower people to engage in economic activities including agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, to gain better control of our natural resources, to improve law-and-order, among many other objectives.”

Highlighting the achievements and future expectations, Prime Minister Marape added, “I will be revisiting what we have achieved over the last 18 months under the current Cabinet Ministers to ensure that we are working, and not wasting time and resources.”

With the year progressing, the Prime Minister issued a call to action: “We are now into the third month of the year and it is not a time to squander time and resources. Everyone is expected to pull in and shape up.”

The Prime Minister also addressed the overarching challenges the country faces, including unemployment, restlessness, and lawlessness, noting that departmental heads will be convened this month to account for their activities in preparation for the Final Budget Outcomes to be presented before March 31. All governmental activities will be evaluated against the expected outcomes outlined in the Medium-Term Development Plan IV (2023-2027).

On the subject of provincial governments, Prime Minister Marape highlighted the transfer of over K30 billion to provinces over the past five years, setting high expectations for service delivery to the people.

“With such huge transfers to the sub-national government level, over the last five years, the expectation is that we have – to the best of our ability – delivered services to our people. We will look at what we have achieved thus far at the provincial level and what we can do to improve on this,” he said.