Local Government and political development in Papua New Guinea

The paper examines the history of local government in Papua New Guinea and prospects for it, and offers some comparisons with Commonwealth Africa, particularly East Africa. The P.N.G. system of local government was influenced by that of Tanganyika but grew to greater proportional significance. Although challenged by the rise of nationalism, as in East Africa, local government has played a much greater role in political development. A significant anti-council movement challenged the new system, but mirrored its forms. The regional nature of these protests accompanied by a weak nationalist movement, led to strong pressures for decentralization after independence. The 1976 constitutional settlement has established provincial governments with complete control over local government and has posed fundamental questions about the future shape of local government in P.N.G.     

Bougainville and Papua New Guinea: Complexities of Secession in a Multi-ethnic Developing State

The claims made by Bougainville's secessionist leaders correspond with five theoretical perspectives on the morality of secession – based, respectively, on notions of political consent, national identity, cultural preservation, distributive justice and territorial title. Each is tackled in turn, as a means to both assessing the justness of the Bougainvillean case, while also testing the limits of applicability of the moral perspectives themselves. Overall, it is concluded that the complexities of the Bougainville/Papua New Guinea case militate against outright separation. Rather, a balanced resolution of injustices is more likely to be attained by modifications to institutions and patterns of distribution within the existing state. Furthermore, this highly complex case throws up important challenges from which normative theory can profitably learn.     

Decentralization,provincial policy making and the law in Papua New Guinea

Shortly after independence in 1975 Papua New Guinea decided to decentralize political power by creating nineteen provincial governments, complete with legislatures and executives. The division of powers between the two levels of government was set down in the Organic Law on Provincial Government and subsequent delegations of power by the National Executive Council (cabinet). The ability of provincial governments to fulfil the role in policy making set out for them depends on a number of political, financial and legal factors at both the national and provincial levels. A close examination of the legal base of provincial policy making reveals a number of shortcomings and incoherencies in the legal arrangements which pose obstacles to the realization of effective decentralized policy making. There are several possible approaches to resolving these problems, but the most appropriate one requires co-ordination between the National Government and provincial governments in replacing delegated powers with provincial legislation.     

‘Trainingism’ revisited in Papua New Guinea

Despite much training in public administration over the past 20 years there has been little improvement in public service management in the Third World. This was anticipated in Schaffer's critical notion of ‘trainingism’. This concept, when applied to Papua New Guinea, helps us to understand why training has been unable to produce dramatic changes in public service performance. Training has been used to perform latent functions and has not been evaluated. The situation is currently under review as new initiatives are taking place to improve training's contribution to public service efficiency and effectiveness.     

The impact of decentralization on health workforce development in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea decentralized a wide range of health functions to provincial governments between 1977 and 1983. The national Department of Health (DOH) was given no role in provincial budget and staffing decisions, and the national health budget was fragmented into the health components of provincial budgets. The impact of decentralization on health workforce development was particularly severe and largely unforeseen. Many difficulties were inherent in the manner in which decentralization regulations structured power relationships. Others arose as a result of the administrative confusion and inflamed relationships that accompanied the forceful transfer of power from a very reluctant national DOH to the provinces. Even though policy formulation and planning were retained as national functions, decentralization hampered their effective execution. Human resource data bases deteriorated, responsibility for planning became confused, and the ability of the DOH to implement its planning decisions was compromised. In reality, health workforce planning was carried out by the Departments of Finance and Planning, and Personnel Management through the annual budgetary process of provincial financial limits and staff ceilings, without any attempt to assess health service needs, either in the country as a whole or between the provinces. Decentralization brought a need for new management skills, and it complicated administrative relationships between training institutions and the provinces. The Papua New Guinea experience has shown that in a decentralized health service, there is a great potential for conflict between national goals and the aspirations of individual provinces. To achieve an equitable, appropriate and effective staffing of services, standards must be formulated as the basis for planning and conflict resolution. Effective linkages between central government departments and between the national and provincial health authorities must be developed, and management and technical skills of health managers improved.     

Administrative problems of the provincial sales tax on beer in Papua New Guinea

With the establishment of provincial government in Papua New Guinea, the Organic Law has conferred on the provincial governments the authority to raise revenue using local revenue bases including retail sales taxes. These taxes have significant advantages and a sales tax on beer has particular benefits in P.N.G. in terms of potential yield and ease of administrative management. The tax is levied on the two breweries and the breweries collect the tax at their breweries and wholesale warehouses on behalf of the provincial governments. For the brewery with the dominant share of the market the arrangement under which it collects the tax for a commission and pays over quarterly to the provincial governments brings financial advantage. The brewery with a smaller share of the market and localized sales is less likely to be benefitting by the arrangement. For the future given expected beer consumption a change from a quantity based tax to ad valorem rates would be financially advantageous to the provincial governments, and would reduce the need for some provinces to seek tax sources elsewhere, but experience shows the general benefit of raising the tax, not at the point of final sale, but on the wholesaler or manufacturer.     

Decentralization for regional development: A comparative study of Tanzania,Zambia and Papua New Guinea

Decentralization has been a common aim in administrative reform and this article points to common themes in the decentralization programmes of Tanzania, Zambia and Papua New Guinea. The programmes involve both developing field administrative structures on an area basis in which horizontal links between the field staff of different ministries are at least as important as the vertical lines of authority linking field staff with headquarters' departments, and also decentralizing authority over planning and implementing development programmes to local decision making bodies. The impact of these decentralization programmes has not hitherto been adequately monitored or evaluated, and experience of attempts at doing this in Tanzania emphasizes the importance of building into a decentralization programme a method of monitoring it which produces usable information. The article points to the plans for monitoring to be pursued in Zambia.     

Fostering subnational autonomy and accountability in decentralized developing countries: lessons from the Papua New Guinea experience

Using the experience of Papua New Guinea as a case study, this article examines the importance of political and administrative organization, electoral politics and revenue assignments for fostering subnational autonomy and accountability in decentralized developing countries, and hence the success of fiscal decentralization programmes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disbursement,decentralization and development: Lessons from the first rural health services project in Papua New Guinea

In 1983 the Department of Health in Papua New Guinea decentralized the control of health services to provincial governments. In the same year a major rural health development project commenced in six of the nineteen provinces. Conflict arose between the centralized control required by the project and the decentralized health system. This article reviews the experience of the project implementators in trying to reconcile the philosophy and reality of decentralization with the centralized project design. Lessons point to the need for closer collaboration with beneficiaries during project design, formal clarification of responsibilities of national and provincial governments in implementation, institutional strengthening as a project input and the development of mechanisms for review and change during the course of implementation.     

Whose wants in ‘needs-based planning’? Some examples of unwritten agendas from the provincial integrated rural development programmes of Papua New Guinea

The rhetoric of ‘needs’-based planning requires little refining. What must be questioned and recognized are the values of decision makers and the unwritten agendas of those involved in the planning process. Taking the example of some of the integrated rural development programmes (IRDPs) in Papua New Guinea, this paper looks at the way planners and others cast development and information ‘nets’. These nets abrogate indigenous development processes. The ‘nets’ make it easy for development professionals and others involved in planning to follow unwritten agendas and difficult for target groups to articulate their ‘needs’ and to understand what is going on. It is suggested that these problems are not unique to PNG and may well be relevant to ‘needs based planning’ in other situations.     

树立新形象 营造软环境——深圳龙岗区创新与增强先发优势的若干思路

当前,国际局势呈现出复杂多变、异彩纷呈的特点,中国加入WTO后,既面临着前所未有的严峻挑战、又有着千载难逢的发展机遇。如何大力提升深圳龙岗辖区经济发展的软环境,创新和增强在激烈竞争中的先发优势,是全区干部群众必须认真思考的问题。