There’s no collaboration and teamwork in the Government departments and agencies, hence Prime Minister James Marape underscored the importance of teamwork during the Budget Management Committee (BMC) meeting in Port Moresby this week.
Prime Minister stated that the departments and agencies that need collaborative effort include Treasury, Finance, National Planning, Prime Minister and National Executive Council, Internal Revenue Commission, and Customs.
He pointed out that Treasury, Finance, and National Planning lack coordination since he was the Finance Minister in the previous government and they need a change.
“There were days in the past when everyone was operating on an ad hoc basis. I, as a former Finance Minister, know the recklessness of eight years of Treasury doing its own thing, Finance doing its own thing, and Planning doing its own thing,” Prime Minister Marape stated.
He asserted that discretion should not be exercised at whim, highlighting the importance of adherence to a unified game plan.
“There is a game plan, and we are a team. Our game plan is to serve our government to grow our economy – that must be our key focus.”
Prime Minister Marape stressed that as a result of serving the economy first, has seen substantial growth over the last five years bringing in a total of K101 billion.
“The net result is that our economy grew by K30 billion. If you look at it in that context, over the last four hard years, we posted a K30 billion macro-economic growth.”
Prime Minister further emphasized the need for economic growth to surpass population growth for sustainable debt rates.
“Over the last 48 years, the population has been growing at 3 per cent, while the economy has been growing below 3 per cent. That status quo needs to be reversed.”
Since 2019, the government has deliberately employed a fiscal policy path to catch up on population growth and foster economic expansion.
