The buck always stops with the PM. It's about time the PM took charge of a very bad situation that has now posed a serious national security threat to the community due to the incompetence of the Correctional Institution Services Ministry.

It was most disappointing to watch several press conferences by both the Minister and his CIS boss on TV. The Minister blames the junior ranking guards for the escape by some high-risk prisoners from Bomana jail just outside Port Moresby.

To make the whole TV press conference look a farce, many PNGeans saw the CIS boss smiling at the cameras and telling all and sundry along with his Minister on how the whole escape took place. Both men expressed no shame at all on how this shocking escape incident looked for their own Ministry.

Neither Miniter Tony Aimo or his CIS Commissioner immediately took any direct responsibility and accountability for this major security beach. Both the Minister and Commissioner public statements were most unprofessional. They should not have gone into the details of how the whole prison break was master-minded, and other speculations whilst a preliminary internal investigations by the CIS was still going on.

This is a no-no so the sidelining of both men from their jobs realy comes as no surprise. The public are right to be very angry with the jail boss and his organization's incompetence in allowing this major prison break.

The government must address their demands for action now instead of just forking out more money each time there is a nation-wide public outcry. This could have all being prevented in the first place. Now the people have to fork out some K2 or 3 million of public money to chase after the prisoners and catch them (if we catch them), investigate the whole thing; and take some action (if any) to deter future incidents of this nature.

A new proactive Minister must now immediately be appointed to take charge of this national manhunt and clean up the mess in the CIS Ministry. The PM has his hands full with many other issues still outstanding for many years.

Robin/Rossco: Note your comments. I am also aware of this situation with some overseas government's use of outsourcing the administration of state prisons to private prison management service providers. You are right for the government in PNG to exercise extreme caution here although it is an alternative option.

While Correctional Services may need systemic overhaul, I'd urge a certain amount of caution with private prison firms. They're not exactly covered in glory in parts of Australia, so external independent scrutiny would be essential. There was a shocker of a story last year (again on ABC Four Corners) involving sub-contracted private guards from a large international security group who were inadequately trained and/or supervised, operating with inadequate equipment and were involved in the accidental but utterly avoidable death of a respected indigenous Australian from heat stress. The WA State authorities later admitted a string of systemic failures. Privatisation of services needs to be very closely monitored.