A “Legal Corruption” In Government Ministries: The Fancy Hotel Workshop Scam


Moreby’s fanciest hotels and even the scattered fancy hotels located in other PNG towns and cities love the new legal corruption that now dominates the PNG government when it comes to workshops.  Chief Secretary Sir Manasupe Zurenuoc finally figured out what honest public servants saw nearly 10 years ago and were practicing without detection.   The harder it gets to steal money, the more motivated dishonest public servants are to find alternative means of experiencing the fancy life, even if only for a few days.  If it now is too hard to steal enough money to bring your girlfriend to the Crowne Plaza for a weekend of loving and high living, you need to find other ways to still experience the fancy life.  Fancy workshops have become a form of legal corruption to achieve this objective.
Here’s now this new legal corruption works.    Government workshops used to be held at modest hotels, even guest houses at the provincial level.  Many were held at simple church venues.  This meant that workshops cost relatively little money.  That is no longer true.

Nowdays government departments rush to book workshop space at the Grand Papua and Crowne Plaza.  Workshop attendees have their airport transport paid, their accommodation pay, get usually lunches and sometimes even dinners covered by the government department and on top of it all, they receive between K200 and K400 per day travel allowance.  This is completely corrupt because travel allowance was created for those in government service to be able to pay for their own food and accommodation.  It is like double dipping and double payment to get travel allowance and have hardly any travel expenses to pay for.  The result for the workshop recipients is a trip that is actually profitable to them.  Some government workshops in the big hotels now even have companies setting up booths to sell things at the workshops, knowing that the workshop attendees are flush with cash.   Since the workshop attendees get the big travel allowance just by showing up to register (they don’t actually have to attend workshop sessions), this means they have enough cash to do what they used to do:  bring their girlfriend for a few nights stay at one of Port Moresby’s finest hotels.

This is the modern-day corruption of the Department of Education  and Department of Health especially.   The politicians are as much to blame for this as anyone.  Government officers see our corrupt politicians such as Ben Micah (Grand Papua) and Anderson Agiru (Crowne Plaza) live the fancy life and they get jealous.  The politicians, Peter O’Neill included (a frequent visitor at Airways) set a terrible example for government workers.  The workers see that the politicians and Prime Minister are wasting government money and feel it’s all right for them to do the same.  
The problem is that Sir Manasupe Zurenuoc is cracking down in a non-analytical way.   He is dead wrong thinking that workshops are not important training opportunities.  If he persists with that kind of attitude, he will be solving one problem while creating another to replace it.   Our field officers in government badly need more training and education and workshops are part of that.  The problem is not workshops.  It is the corrupt way workshops are being planned and conducted.  
The solution to this legal corruption is to continue the workshops but stop the double dipping and force workshops to be held in simple facilities and lower cost venues as used to be the tradition.   If some government officers say they aren’t going to attend workshops that are held at Kefamo Catholic mission outside of Goroka or another one of those simple but very adequate workshop venues, then you know these government workers are more concerned about themselves than serving the people.  They shouldn’t even be in government.  
No more Crowne Plaza and Royal Papua Hotel workshops with the fancy buffet lunches and luxurious food and wine and cheese receptions.  NO MORE!   This is our tax money and public servants have corruptly kept this legal corruption secret until now.


http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/26/11/86/reception.jpg
Moresby’s Crowne Plaza, a favourite workshop venue for government workshops these days.  Note that this hotel makes sure in the photos it uses to attract clients overseas that any black faces in the photo are inconspicuous.  Only the white faces are out in the open.  But PNG government department personnel want a few days of wining and dining at the taxpayers expense so they don’t care whether these hotels show hidden racism or not.


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Y:\PIX pol\$ use now DUPS\GP.jpg

The Grand Papua Hotel, the most expensive in Moresby, is another favourite government workshop venue these days.  The high cost is of no concern and corruption in the government departments results in obscene budgets for health and education workshops being approved without a blink of the eye.  

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