By Mickey Kavera – EM TV News, Port Moresby
Foreign Technical Advisors will still be utilised by the government. Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, made it clear that the government is in no rush to remove all foreign technical advisors employed in the public service.
Rather, under the public service reform undertaken by the government, foreign technical advisors are to report to the structures of the government.
“Papua New Guinea needs technical assistance but we need assistance from people who will report to our structures.
“We cannot allow advisors or employees who are doing work for the state to report to third parties and not government.
“That is what is happening and we are just organising it with the support of the Australian government, understanding where we are going and it is not about throwing some advisors out of the country,” the PM said.
”We are telling them they can work in our country but they must now work as Papua New Guineans as Papua New Guinean employees of a Papua New Guinean department. Which means our secretaries and senior public servants can supervise their work and give directions on how we as a country and government is functioning,” he said.
O’Neill said the government is not trying to get rid of all the technical advisors, but instead trying to realign them with the priorities of our government and the country.
“We will continue to build capacity over the next few years, working with development partners to have twinning arrangements.”
