PNGBLOGS

by CYRIL GARE  Port Moresby,  Only 250,000 public servants (plus or minus) out of 8 million Papua New Guineans eat up 30 percent of our national-common wealth or K5.2 billion of the national budget every year through their pay packets. That’s a huge burden on the shoulder of a struggling developing nation where all socioeconomic indicators on the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) scale speak low of PNG, even lower among the regional neighbors - Pacific Island Nations (PIN). This excludes the costs of public servants’ traveling allowances, office rentals, utilities, vehicle hire, and such other costs that leech on public funding. As if that’s not enough, departments and state agencies have developed a systemic tendency to ask for more and loot from the people’s share each time the pie is available. A case in point: - The Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) is handling of 2022 K15 million price support/freight subsidy program funds. Originally, K20 million was allo

Steve Lewis Rich contract ... rural sociologist Dr. Adiel Mbabu.   Source: The Daily Telegraph THEY'RE the Australian government officials you've never heard of - but most of them earn more than Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The combined salaries of a select group of AusAID-funded consultants - who offer advice to developing nations on everything from law and order to farming - totals millions of dollars a year. Kenyan man Adiel Mbabu, who advises Papua New Guinea on farming techniques, is the recipient of one of the richest individual foreign aid contracts, worth $1.089 million.Dr Mbabu's three-year deal - which will earn him just over $350,000 annually tax-free - was awarded after an "open international tender process", according to an AusAID spokeswoman. The Kenyan adviser provides "expert independent support" to the PNG National Agriculture and Livestock Department. He is just one consultant whose work in some of

Steve Lewis Rich contract ... rural sociologist Dr. Adiel Mbabu.   Source: The Daily Telegraph THEY'RE the Australian government officials you've never heard of - but most of them earn more than Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The combined salaries of a select group of AusAID-funded consultants - who offer advice to developing nations on everything from law and order to farming - totals millions of dollars a year. Kenyan man Adiel Mbabu, who advises Papua New Guinea on farming techniques, is the recipient of one of the richest individual foreign aid contracts, worth $1.089 million.Dr Mbabu's three-year deal - which will earn him just over $350,000 annually tax-free - was awarded after an "open international tender process", according to an AusAID spokeswoman. The Kenyan adviser provides "expert independent support" to the PNG National Agriculture and Livestock Department. He is just one consultant whose work in