[Papua New Guinea] Payroll review would save millions

Papua New Guinea’s chairman for the Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform and Service Delivery has said that a correctly executed public service payroll review would save millions of kina annually and restore integrity to the system, The National reports.

Gary Juffa said that, while the committee had aggressively facilitated the public sector space, it did not believe a review and recommendations - or a new system or process - was the long term answer to the integrity of the government payroll system.

“It is working on the painful longer-term solution of the supply of the correct human resource which runs these systems.

“A nation is not as good as its systems capabilities – a nation is as good as its human resource capabilities.

“A top-class system can be bought and installed overnight – not a top-class human,” the chairman said.

Mr Juffa reportedly said that the massive overruns in public service emoluments since 2010 were noted by the National Executive council (NEC) in 2018, peaking at K730m in 2018.

The NEC subsequently commissioned an independent review and in September 2019 a public tender was awarded to the international accounting firm Deloitte.

Mr Juffa said as a result of verbal advice to maintain confidentiality, the committee had no oversight of the review, it was signalling the results it wished to see emanating from the review.

Source: The National

(Quotes via original reporting)

Papua New Guinea’s chairman for the Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform and Service Delivery has said that a correctly executed public service payroll review would save millions of kina annually and restore integrity to the system, The National reports.

Gary Juffa said that, while the committee had aggressively facilitated the public sector space, it did not believe a review and recommendations - or a new system or process - was the long term answer to the integrity of the government payroll system.

“It is working on the painful longer-term solution of the supply of the correct human resource which runs these systems.

“A nation is not as good as its systems capabilities – a nation is as good as its human resource capabilities.

“A top-class system can be bought and installed overnight – not a top-class human,” the chairman said.

Mr Juffa reportedly said that the massive overruns in public service emoluments since 2010 were noted by the National Executive council (NEC) in 2018, peaking at K730m in 2018.

The NEC subsequently commissioned an independent review and in September 2019 a public tender was awarded to the international accounting firm Deloitte.

Mr Juffa said as a result of verbal advice to maintain confidentiality, the committee had no oversight of the review, it was signalling the results it wished to see emanating from the review.

Source: The National

(Quotes via original reporting)