Spotted on PNG Blogs

BETWEEN 2003 and 2008, the Somare government amassed a whopping K6 billion in extra revenue. That is money over and above what was budgeted each year. The excess billions were parked in trust accounts and drawn down in one-off payments which were approved in a number of mid-year supplementary budgets.

Much of that money, we were told, was to be used for maintenance and new infrastructure - the major road networks in the country being a priority. Some of it was to retire PNG’s huge external debt, then standing at K6 billion. Outstanding government debt with the Public Officers Superannuation Fund (POSF) was to be paid off and outstanding awards to public servants were also to be paid.

Some of the money – about K600 million – was to be used by the government on the new gas project. By the time of the global economic meltdown in the latter part of 2008, the last of this excess revenue was used up. It was back to borrowing from the banks and from our own future earning to fund last year and this year’s budgets.

As we look back, we see that nothing has moved. Take the highways – the main thrust of the government’s supplementary budgets. The Highlands Highway, Sepik Highway, Bogia Highway, Madang to Lae Highway, Buluminski Highway, Kimbe to Bialla Highway, the Hiritano and Magi highways and the Alotau to East Cape Highway are in desperate need of upgrading, sealing and resealing.

So, where have the billions gone? Government debt remains at about K6 billion today. So, where have the billions gone if it has not gone into cutting debt? Education and health infrastructure have gone to waste despite the fact that, annually, a quarter of a billion kina has been each allocated to sorting out this mess.

The POSF is still owed a substantial amount of money. The public service’s promised 6% pay rise is yet to be paid.

So, where has all the billions ended up? Teachers, policemen, warders, nurses and doctors are still awaiting payment of their awards or are struggling yet to firm up their awards as in the case of the National Doctors Association. None of the billions have been directed at these people because, if they had, there would be industrial harmony today. So, where is the money? 

Let us dwell awhile on this last group, the National Doctors Association. This week, the association decided to go on a nationwide strike next Friday after failure to get an agreement with the departments of Personnel Management and Health. Working under tremendous stress, under the most difficult of circumstances, with faulty or substandard equipment, with chronic shortages of medicine and severe shortage of able bodied staff, doctors have given their best time and time again. If they are irate sometimes, there is a good reason for it. If they are snappy or bad tempered or ill-mannered sometimes, it is because they are only human. The stress is quite severe.

A letter writer says that it is wrong for the doctors to go on strike, that they are morally and ethically bound to carry on regardless of the circumstances. Up to a point, perhaps, but there must be a limit. And, it is the absolute limit when parliament can vote on voices (Ayes have it!) alone to award its membership 52% salary increases and have it backdated and have it paid instantly, but, who is fighting the good doctors’ fight – the people who daily save lives in this country? Who?

Even the Health Department, their immediate employer, seems unaware or uncaring of their dilemma. This is morally insane. What is equally insane is that Papua New Guineans can tolerate such injustice. There must be some good people left in this country – good people in the Health Department and the Department of Personnel Management and in the halls of power in parliament who can give urgent attention to the doctors’ case and every other outstanding award.

If nobody is paying any attention, we can only offer this advice, albeit very reluctantly: Go do your worst, doctors, do your worst, because your best goes unappreciated and most especially, unrewarded.