Action Plan For Integrity

Papua New Guinea is a country of vast and diverse natural resources and the potential to become a leader in regional agriculture. This would have been the best description of Papua New Guinea some 20 years ago. A young and vibrant country with many positive indicators on the economic front, and with mining, forestry and fisheries taking the lead, this country was determined to become a leading figure in the South Pacific Region.

However, the reality today is the total reverse. Overseas borrowings are at their highest ever, high interest rates, rapidly deteriorating infrastructure and many more impediments are gripping the country so hard that survival is threatened by greed, malice and corruption.

Right, with hat is Governor of Western Highlands and former Prime Minister Paias Wingti, center is Don Polye, Minister for Works and Civil Aviation and to the left is Agriculture Minister Moses Maladina. All attended the anti-corruption rally..

The PNG Ombudsman Commission, which is a government watchdog entity, has admitted that its resources and finances are insufficient to weed out the rot. The storyline is the same for the Public Prosecutor, the Royal Constabulary, Attorney General's Office and all other government agencies. Realizing this weakness and lack of support, the community was rallied together by several notable figures in the capital to establish a PNG chapter of the international anti-corruption group, Transparency International.

TIPNG is headed by the outspoken statesman, Sir Anthony Siaguru, who is providing a voice for the community to speak out against corruption in public. The 6-year-old organization had one common goal: to assist in a multi-sectoral approach to eradicate corruption in high public office by policy.

According to Siaguru, TIPNG's aim was to legitimize the coalition and the most fitting approach was to develop community involvement. He adds, "This Community Coalition provides us with the legitimacy we need to take on major national issues and powerful interest groups in both government and business.

"We arranged a national seminar," he continues, "to work out a National Integrity Action Plan for our country. This required some time and energy but it was worth the effort as it gave each of the coalition members a stake in the Integrity Action Plan. It gave them a vested interest to protect and advance. And it meant for each of them a public commitment to support the Coalition's list of projects adopted within the Integrity Plan."

With poverty and unemployment high, the government priority was on its revenue generating projects. Making its administration more transparent was not on the to-do list so that further compromise of government credibility continued.

A recent report published jointly by the Institute of National Affairs and Transparency International, made the point that most medium scale businesses in PNG were owned or partly owned by politicians or ex-politicians. Professor Albert Mellam and Danny Aloi of the University of Papua New Guinea, under the auspices of the Institute of National Affairs and its Executive Director Mike Manning, prepared the report.

The report said that one of the reasons for this was that PNG has such a weak capital base that it is very hard for PNG business people to get established through ordinary channels. Another reason was that PNG still has a weak political system that has no guidelines for politician ethics, making it easier for them to be led astray.

The authors spent some time too on the problems of State Owned Enterprises and the failure of the privatization process. This has meant that these organizations were governed by political rather than business principles. Accordingly, nepotism and corruption in the appointment of boards and chief executives of these entities amounted to political favors, or "jobs for the boys." These trends became a major hindrance for healthy business.

Another statesman, Sir Alkan Tololo, who was well known throughout academic institutions in the region prior to his passing, once told university students, " This country PNG is very wealthy and blessed with many natural resources but the main impediment to our growth is that we steal from ourselves."