This is the first time Central Agency Coordination Committee (CACC) held their meeting out in the village of Central province, as their meetings are usually held in towns and cities.
Eboa village in the Kairuku district is the host of the 2023 CACC first Southern region consultative meeting yesterday.
The Chief Secretary to Government and Chairman of the CACC, Ivan Pomaleu said during the meeting that it is important to have meetings in the village while stating the role of CACC.
“The CACC sits under the National Executive Council. NEC is a committee of ministers. We, CACC, are the committee under the NEC,” Pomaleu said.
“Now, what does that mean? That means that every policy, project and document that goes before the NEC comes through CACC. We clear it before it goes to the ministers and the prime minister to deal with.
“So, we are at a place where we do a lot of things; we read about it, we hear those who represent different policies and proposals coming through. But sometimes, we don’t see what it means to be on the ground. We cannot make the connections on what it means to our people in villages such as Eboa. And so, it was important that we brought CACC to where it matters most,” he said.
Mr Pomaleu is hopeful that over the course of few years, CACC will be able to cover as many of the villages in the country and understand some of the issues in order translate government policies.
“We hope to be able to understand the key issues that are important to our people on the ground.
“We will be able to translate some of the government’s important policies to those who receive them so that we are able to make the important connection. We are able to appreciate what we are deciding here or recommending to our government to do, which means something to our people.
“I want to reflect on the speech that the Honorable Member Peter Isoaimo has made, which covered a lot on agriculture, SME, transport, education, infrastructure, health, village developments that are all important to us.
“We won’t be able to have all the answers as we sit at a place where we have to help our government determine priorities and that is subject to leadership and the government that you are part of to determine how we allocate resources. However, we certainly can become sympathetic to your issues.
“Our government does have priorities but these are the people who make it happen. These are the people who will put the paper work together, these are the people who will potentially decide on the numbers and go to the budget. These people are your district members,” he said.
Mr Pomaleu said this was not the first time CACC had regional meetings. They had regional meetings before and will have in other regions before year ends.
“We will do four meetings this year in the regions. The Southern region gets one and this is the one in Eboa Village; for Momase, it will be held in Sepik; for the Highlands, it will be in Enga and for the New Guinea Islands; it will be in Manus” Pomaleu said.
CACC chairman Pomaleu said, it is important to bring CACC meetings to the villages where it matters most while thanking Eboa village people for successfully hosting the 2023 CACC meeting.
