AIDS orphans – the untold tragedy of PNG*
Now a general service medal for TPNG?

AusAID adviser review a bad Aussie joke

BY PAUL OATES & KEITH JACKSON

PNG FOREIGN Minister, Sam Abal, claims – without originality – that much Australian aid is wasted on consultants and advisers rather than being spent on top development issues like health and education.

In response, Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, states that AusAID will join with partner governments to conduct a review of adviser effectiveness.

Which looks to PNG Attitude a bit like Caesar being appointed to judge both Caesar and Caesar’s wife.

Mr Smith says Australia is committed to providing effective and 'value for money' advisers. We can all breathe easy in the face of such banality.

Given the vacuousness of such political analysis, PNG Attitude feels compelled to examine both Foreign Ministers’ statements in more detail.

The PNG Foreign Minister is right, even if obvious. Many overseas advisers and consultants are reported to be paid half million dollar contracts by AusAID.

So-called 'boomerang aid' has been around for years and refers to the giaman [flawed] practice where AusAID pays contracting firms and Australian consultants lots of money which comes back to Oz bank accounts with PNG not accruing any substantial benefit.

This money has been pouring into PNG for decades; the consultants have been there as long; AusAID has been superintending in its role as banker. So, easy question, what major gains have been achieved in PNG as the result of Australian aid. 

Can we now have the scorecard, please? Email to PNG Attitude here.

It is claimed that PNG experts are not available and overseas consultants must be recruited. But why are local experts not available? Why, after so long and so much money, are they not there?

In our day, we worked ourselves out of a job by effectively training Papua New Guineans.  How else did PNG gain independence when it did?

The present strategy seems to be having the effect of driving the PNG public service into greater dependence on aid.

Could it be that AusAID contractors (thoroughly conflicted, because for every new PNG professional, less contractors are required) aren't highly motivated to train Papua New Guineans to take over their jobs.

After all, working yourself out of a job is not consistent with contracting companies' bottom line. These companies exist to have their consultants stay in jobs.

When you combine this conflict of interest with PNG government appointment processes severely corroded by the nepotistic and corrupt wantok [tribal affiliation] system, many educated Papua New Guineans have nowhere to turn to build fulfilling, creative nation-building roles.

They are cut out of the action by both 'boomerang aid' and wantokism.

Some go overseas to pursue their careers; these people are highly regarded as thorough professionals whether as pilots in Singapore or nurses in Brisbane.

Others sit on the backbench in PNG - waiting, hoping, they'll get a chance to contribute meaningfully to their country. Frustrated by a system that excludes them because of trivial, parochial politics.

These people are a wasted resource to PNG, and both PNG and Australian governments have a lot to answer for in not creating an environment in which the nation's talent is fully and fairly deployed.

But let's get back to AusAID, where the old idea that paying peanuts and getting monkeys has – it seems - morphed into the notion that the more you pay, the better the monkey. Well, yeah...

In the case of Australian aid to PNG, the main outcome has been to increase many foreign bank accounts.

When did you last read a story about a major Australian aid triumph in PNG? We fear the casebook is pretty much empty.

There's a feeling that, with the consultants out of the way (?), aid can be directed to PNG unfiltered to perform great tasks. This is nonsense. The truth is that health, education and like programs, which are the direct responsibility of the PNG government, can't just be hot wired to Australia's overseas aid program.

A recent inquiry into PNG government finances revealed horrendous inefficiencies, and worse, in the management of most government departments. Giving more dollars to badly governed agencies is hardly likely to achieve the desired results.

And to reiterate a point we made earlier, which is the worst aspect of this so-called review. That AusAID and partner governments are being asked to appraise their own programs is a disgrace. It is a bare-faced, grubby conflict of interest.

Moreover, it is no recipe for change. It is a plan for dissembling, covering up and continuing a corrupted system that needs to be cleaned up quick smart.

The corruption of aid processes exists on both sides of the Coral Sea, with the Australian government – as the aid giver - probably more culpable than anyone.

Comments

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Bruce Copeland

By passing aid projects to private companies, the Australian government has compromised the Australian foreign commitment forever.

The trick is to reduce aid funding to a point that the Australian companies lose interest. There is an Australian wantok system in aid funding.

Australians come to PNG to work as consultants in a company. Then they go home and set up their own company to have funding granted by their wantoks who then have the option of joining them later. This is like a funding chain letter.

And so it goes.

Bruce Copeland

The PNG National reports that an Australian Government aid adviser is on a package worth K135,000 a month, about 500 times the wage of the average PNG worker. That's an annual K1.47 million.

The figures were revealed at a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra and prompted Liberal senator Helen Kroger to exclaim that the adviser was on one big salary.

Peter Baxter Director General of AusAID admitted that some salaries were too high. A recent enquiry found that half of Australian aid to PNG was spent on consultancies and training and not on the nation building programs it was intended for.

Bruce Copeland

The prevailing expatriate driven propaganda in this country
is that (1) all men are bastards (2) all women are as pure as
blessed virgins and (3) all children are victims.

The truth of the matter may well be that (1) most men are
good family men (2) some women are not blessed virgins
(3) most children are loved and cared for by parents and
(5) many men, women and children are predators.

That should be the starting point in the national HIV/AIDS
response. I used to play the card game of bridge. The basic
strategy was to lead out with your longest and strongest. So
too in the national HIV/AIDS response.

It is too easy to exclude men and declare that family is the
starting point of abuse. What is the alternative? The local
nightclub? Start with family.

Bruce Copeland

AIDS Holistics was incorporated as an NGO in Papua
New Guinea since 2002. It was formed by a family with
two of its members dying of AIDS.

We have never been recognized by AusAID or United
Nations as we were banned on incorporation by AusAID
advisors who objected to our Positive Living message
and focus on family / faith. United Nations supported
the banning.

We were opposed by the private consultancy companies
working for AusAID as we would not obey their dictate
that no person in the national HIV/AIDS response was
to do private research on HIV/AIDS.

Opening of Google was banned on threat of non renewal
of contract. We last saw this approach in nazi Germany.

AIDS Holistics had specialist physiological background
and practical experience in AIDS care. This gave us no
rights. We tutored early AusAID workers but we were
still banned as our family focus required we be silenced.

AusAID advisors had censored the AIDS message to
remove all advice that was not in the interests of their
private sexuality agenda that banned advice on oral
and anal sex, family, marriage and parenting.

Without consultation in this country, they wanted a
society based on no recognition of family, same sex
marriage, no recognition of men as husbands and
fathers, rights for children but no responsibilities,
focus on violence of men and equal sexuality rights
for all.

They enforced their dictates by constant bullying,
intimidation of AIDS organizations and workers,
punishing of organizations that did not toe the line
and denial of funding.

On behalf of the people of this nation who are the
clients of AusAID and the UN we advise what this
nation wants as clients. We are 5 individuals who
live with our families and expect a family focus.

WE SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE NATION.

This is a national agenda on strengthening family.
We are supported by the constitution, churches,
families, the Departments of Education and
Community Development and family violence
unit of Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.

The AIDS pandemic will be slowed by emergence
of strong families with loving, caring parents, the
care and development of children and promotion
of strong family values. This is seen as a threat
to the foreign sexuality groups.

Their idea of a perfect society would be raging
HIV/AIDS pandemic, broken families, orphan
children in need of food, money and loving, the
proliferation of orphanages, violence and abuse
in families with many street kids, lowering of
age of consent for children to have sex with
adults, adoption of children by all. churches
silenced and a foreign sexuality curriculum
promoted in schools, children spend time in
discoes with sugar daddies, permanent work
in AIDS consultancy firms, tax free pay and
free accommodation in luxury apartments. A
perfect society for AusAID AIDS workers.

POSITIVE LIVING: with faith, hope, peace, love,
family, friends, forgiveness, fellowship, work, sleep,
exercise, relax, nutritious food of fruit, vegetables,
grains and nuts, hygiene, clean water, treatment of
infections, clean in body, mind and soul, clean cells,
blood and tissues and FREEDOM FROM stress, fear,
shame, blame, infection, rejection, beer/homebrew,
tobacco/marijuana and drugs.

FAMILY: love, caring, respect, dignity, marriage,
effective parenting, cooperation, faifhfulness and
no violence, sexual, emotional or physical abuse,
no violence from men or women.

Violence of women towards men / children is an
area ignored as being politically incorrect by the
private consultancy firms. They need to see the
women and children as victims.

AIDS AWARENESS: understanding of aspects
of knowledge for all groups in society including
school children, workers, parents and AIDS care
workers. Focus should be on the physiology of
the body and the attack of the virus on the body.

There should be focus on those aspects specific
to gay men and boys including the health dangers
from anal /oral sex including dangers of the virus
and coccidian gut parasites in attacking the gut
lining.

Parents and others need to learn the key aspects
of bringing up children.

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES for all that
includes the members of families and all people
in the community. Foreign consultancy firms do
focus on rights but ignore responsibilities.

The key aim is to break the ties between children
and families. Rights and responsibilities need to
be promoted in families, schools, courts, media
and churches.

****************

We remind the private consultancy firms that the
funding money is a gift of Australian tax payers.
It is not a gift to any sexuality group. It is not to
fund private agendas.

The basis of the PNG HIV/AIDS response is that
foreign consultants earn millions and most PNG
workers are expected to be volunteers. There is
injustice here. If consultancy fees were reduced,
there could be wages for AIDS workers with
training standards to be reached.

Bruce Copeland AIDS Holistics

A warning to Pacific nations. Beware of the AusAID Trojan
Horse that is offered to nations as part of aid. It is not aid but
sexual imperialism. It will offer women’s / children’s rights
to weaken not strengthen families.

Women are intended to control the world after rejecting the
family and men.

Bruce Copeland

There is an AusAID tyranny in the PNG national
HIV/AIDS response. It is a gross authoritarian control
of all PNG AIDS workers, NGOs and FBOs.

A PNG person or organization to step over the line
is out on their ear. This applies to all PNG workers
from highest rank down. They have to toe the line of
the Australian agenda.

If there is dissent, a person concerned is black banned
for all time. The organization is denied funding. PNG
doctors are blackbanned by AusAID clerks acting as
advisors.

PNG AIDS workers know to shut their mouths or face
total exclusion from employment and funding. As a result
there are PNG doctors who totally disagree with AusAID
focus but are terrified to say so.

If one or two consultancy firms monopolize employment
and funding, then they bring all professional input from
the PNG workers to a total halt. They are afraid to open
their mouths.

Political science / economics students know monopolies
Control prices of goods and service and dominates who is
employed. It is often not the best but those who cringe the
best.

AIDS Holistics has brought this all out into the open and
has been ridiculed by AusAID advisors, secretly banned in
2002, removed from the list of stake holders and the founder
called a child molester and wife beater.

It was all because focus of Positive Living included family
and faith. AusAID advisors planned for the family to be
removed from focus with men excluded from consideration
as fathers and husbands. But advisors have never been able
to silence AIDS Holistics.

We have brought the research up to date with advice on the
attack on the gut. Type Gut lining HIV. We have opened the
door to understanding of infection of the anus by HIV. Type
anus HIV into Google. We have opened understanding of
infection of HIV through the mouth and tonsils. Type HIV
mouth, tonsils into Google.

We thought it was the job of AusAID advisors paid millions
to open up all this research. Not a poor little NGO that has
been banned, vilified and denied funding.

Peter

Bruce - no, I'm not and never was. I worked for PNG institutions and companies and was directly employed by them as I felt this was a more honest contribution - no link to any Government organisation at all. And I paid PNG tax, unlike AusAID consultants.

What cheesed me off was that I got no superannuation contribution (PNG or Oz) and one organisation I worked for reneged on their deal to pay my removal costs back to Oz at the end of the contract, so I was considerably out of pocket. But that is water under the bridge now.

I notice that AusAID have come out fighting from their corner today, e.g., this report from the ABC -

AID EPERT DEFENDS PNG WAGE BILL

By PNG correspondent Liam Fox

The media is being blamed for beating-up criticism of the high wages Australia's aid agency pays to consultants.

AusAID has drawn fire for paying some consultants six-figure, tax-free salaries to provide "technical assistance" to foreign governments.

This week a review of Australia's $400 million aid program to Papua New Guinea found more than half the money is being spent on technical assistance.

Dr Bryant Allen from the Australian National University has worked for AusAID as an agricultural consultant in PNG and says high wages are necessary to attract people to work in areas like Port Moresby.

"It's not a very nice place to be. A lot of these people are away from their families for quite long periods of time," he said.

He says high wages should be used to attract more people to work in remote parts of Australia."

Bruce Copeland

Peter, are you AusAID?

Bruce Copeland

The Australian Government has to realize that there has
been massive deception by AusAID advisors in the
PNG national HIV/AIDS response.

Their aid package has been like the Trojan horse that
came as a gift but was loaded with danger. AusAID
advisors came with their own sexuality package.

It looked so good. There was focus on women’s and
children’s rights. Just what is needed. There was no
focus on men’s rights. There was no mention of the
responsibilities that accompany rights.

Women were told of gender equity. Men were not
told this. There is much violence in this country of
women to men. Adultery of women is widespread
particularly with availability of the mobile phone.

What if women / girls are told of their rights not
to marry men, but to marry women, to ignore the
authority of their father and associate with other
persons as they choose? Break down the family
that is the key to Melanesian society.

What if men / boys are told that marriage with
men is valid and acceptable, that anal sex is a joy
and that they can ignore authority of their father?

Last year, a well known Australian consultancy
firm conducted a survey and training on Murray
Barracks, Taurama Barracks and Igam Barracks
for the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.

Their focus was on women and girls. There was
no formal training for soldiers. They were men.
There was no focus on family. The Trojan horse
was empty.

Bruce Copeland

As Australians we have to have faith in AusAID and assume
that Australian people have the prosperity of our neighbours
basically at heart.

I have always criticized the corruption in the Australian HIV
and AIDS response because I have assumed that we can do
it better. And we will.

Peter

Here's another useful AUSAID initiative -

AusAid funds free education

By ERIC TAPAKAU

AUSTRALIAN aid agency AusAID has jumped on the bandwagon to support the removal of school fees for students in prep and grades one and two throughout elementary schools in Papua New Guinea.
With the support of the Australian Government, up to two million young children will be educated at this level of education, and this will also ease the burden of young families who send their children to attend elementary schools.
AusAID said that it is supporting this initiative of the Department of Education as per the agreement between the prime ministers of Australia and PNG, Kevin Rudd and Sir Michael Somare, to increase net primary enrolment rates to 70 per cent by 2015.
The program began this year and is a big step in increasing the numbers of Papua New Guinea children starting school, particularly young girls.
The net enrolment rate has been increasing steadily from 52.9 per cent in 2007 to 63.6 per cent in 2009.
The increase in enrolment has meant that in 2009, there were 1,272,559 students in elementary and primary schools compared to 973,822 in 2006, or an average increase of 9.2 per cent per year.
This increase can be explained through the successful expansion of elementary education and a greater awareness of the importance of education and of course, now, with the removal of fees for the early grades.
The Australia Pacific Technical College, which the Australian Government supports, delivers skills training in the automotive, manufacturing, construction, hospitality, and health sectors. By the end of 2011 the APTC will have produced about 3000 graduates across Fiji, Samoa, PNG and Vanuatu.
“Removal of school fees is a big step forward in increasing the numbers of PNG children starting school, particularly young girls,” said AusAID’s director general, Peter Baxter
“The Australia Pacific Technical College, which the Australian Government supports, has found a respected niche at the top end of the vocational skills supply chain by providing quality-assured Australian training

Bruce Copeland AIDS Holistics

PNG EXPERTS HAVING A GREATER ROLE.

Paul Oates: You are on the right track. But it can be simpler
yet. We do not need only PNG experts in specialized areas.

In the old days we had programmes to localize positions. I
know during my time in the Australian Army localization
was the key. Line operators had a buddy system with an
Australian giving quiet support.

In the Familiarization Courses for the Australian Defence
Force, I used to advise on how to give discrete support to
our opposite number in the PNGDF. Do not take over. Do
not embarrass the person. Be prepared to allow him to take
credit for your ideas and suggestions.

But that has fallen by the wayside. The plan in the corrupt
Australian companies is never to localize but to maintain
all skills and information as for Australian Eyes Only.
Forever.

In the area of HIV/AIDS, we do not need foreign advisors.
We need to gather all information to be used. Do we have
all we need? If yes. Australians thank you and go home.

Far too many advisors no longer want to get their hands
dirty. And never learn Tok Pisin. That's blackfella talk.

Paul Oates

AusAID

Has anyone actually thought about recruiting and employing qualified PNGians for the work on offer? e.g. Target the aid programs to the local talent available.

Why isn't there an 'independent' recruitment program set up under the AusAID umbrella to ensure that 'qualified' PNG people are available for each position before it is offered to a high priced overseas consultancy firm who then employs overseas staff who have very high 'on costs'? If there are no qualified PNG available, train them up ASAP under a contract that has a set sunset clause in it and won't be fully paid for unless the prior benchmarks for achievement are met.

The whole AusAID program has so far seemed to be run on a scatter gun approach.

Why not provide a supplement to all PNG public servants who are prepared to sign a binding agreement not to be involved in any corrupt practice and to report those they find breaking the law? If the PNG public service were to be paid a reasonable wage they would not have to rely on corruption to feed and look after their families.

Why not concentrate on PNG health or education and ensure these principle areas are working across the nation?

Talkfest's are expensive 'no brainers'!

The PNG government is going to increase the number of ministries (and therefore public servants), instead of making sure those they already employ are actually able to do what they are paid to do. Clearly the AusAID funding needs to be targeted at national achievement and not local appeasement.

A monster has been created that no one as yet seems willing or able to control.

Bruce Copeland AIDS Holistics

Peter,

I am sure that AusAID has done great work in PNG
and elsewhere. Good work is done when consultants
are practical specialists prepared to get their hands
dirty.

My experience has been with AusAID consultants in
HIV/AIDS who are experts in nothing. They had been
recruited on the basis of their sexuality and knew very
little about HIV/AIDS.

The early advisors banned all PNG AIDS workers from
using internet. Now that AIDS Holistics has publicized
all latest research, the advisors have nothing to say.

They were amateurs, experts in women’s rights and the
rights of children. PNG does not need foreign advisors
on HIV/AIDS. Many PNG people know more about the
subject and are more appropriately oriented than a bus
load of overseas consultants.

Peter

Course I meant LIKELY that corruption and abuse would be even more widespread. Finger trouble.

Peter

I'm no spokesman for AUSAID or its performance, but I have met quite a few of the hard-working and talented staff involved in PNG, and you did ask for some examples of successful AUSAID-funded projects!

Seems there a quite a few low profile schemes funded by AUSAID which get under the radar, but are still providing useful benefits to PNG. They are not all big-ticket projects but have produced useful results.

Some worth mentioning are -

- Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Tertiary Health Project. Achievements listed here -

http://www.surgeons.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ExternalAffairs/InternationalProjects/TertiaryHealthServicesPNG/Project_Achievements.htm

- Bureau of Meteorology projects to improve weather forecasting and climate predictions services (see BOM website). Especially important given the impact of natural disasters.

- Microfinance and Employment Projects (in conjunction with ADB). Has helped develop small-business opportunities for women at village level.

- The Basic Education Development Project - spanning ten years - helping to develop basic education services at the village and remote areas level.

- Access to Laws projects - which has made all PNG legislation available on-line. Might seem trivial, but before this it was quite difficult for solicitors and legal staff to get hold of consolidated legislation.

- PATTAF - which provides exchange visits and scholarships for PNG government workers to attend training in Australia.

- Law and Justice sector programmes - one of the ECP initiatives which wasn't scuppered by Wenge. Without some of the research and information provided by these programmes it is unlikely that corruption and abuse would be even more widespread.

- Agricultural Research Development - promoting and researching improvements in sustainable agriculture and actively supports the dissemination of innovative agricultural technologies to rural smallholders.

Bruce Copeland AIDS Holistics

My experience with AusAID advisors has been with the PNG
National HIV/AIDS response. My overall accurate impression
is that there has been massive corruption.

Unqualified people have been employed based largely on their
sexuality. Agendas have been forced on the PNG people with
little to do with the needs of the PNG family.

Not only was there a vast lack of competence, there was a most
corrupt interference in affairs of the nation to ensure dominance
of certain corrupt Australian companies. Any person or agency
that opposed them was banned with funding denied.

Paul Oates

Peter,

I am very pleased to see that there have been some genuine achievements and don't get me wrong, I congratulate those who achieve them.

However, how many other aid projects are still operating or have subsided back into the jungle? Also, how many projects are not set up or properly managed or maintained after they are built?

Using an outcomes based benchmark, what percentage of the overseas aid by all counties to PNG are still operating successfully after 35 years of Independence and billions in aid?

I suggest that the only real achievement of most of the overseas aid to PNG is the creation of 'economic dependence'.

Peter

Paul and Keith,

I think you are being a bit hard on AUSAID. In my admittedly somewhat limited experience, I was involved in two recent developments that have been very successful. One was the building of the new School of Nursing Education at the UPNG Medical School. This project provided bricks and mortar and also curriculum development and course materials for the Nursing programme which is being well-used to this day. Nursing staff from PNG were exchanged with specialists from Australian medical schools for skills-transfer.

The other project was the development of computer labs for the Open College campuses at Madang, Kokopo, Buka and Hagen. AUSAID provided the capital, but the work was carried out and managed locally in PNG.

I am sure there are other examples, but these two projects were (in my opinion) very successful and no expat "consultants" were used.

By the way I agree with the general criticisms about the overuse of consultants. Just go to Honiara and see the number involved in RAMSI projects! They've even just built a new 5 star hotel to help accommodate them.

Bruce Copeland

AUSAID UNDER FIRE

Post Courier 25 May 2010: Aid funding by Australian
Aid for International Development ( AusAID) to Papua
New Guinea has come under fire and described as being
wasted on mega-salaries for consultants and rich contracts
for private firms.

The new criticisms come after Australia and Papua New
Guinea have just released the review of the Development
Cooperation Treaty report.

The review was conducted by independent experts Stephen
Howes from the ANU, Dr Eric Kwa from the University of
Papua New Guinea and Canadian Soe Lin.

It found tens of millions of dollars wasted on consultants and
glossy reports. Money is used to prop bloated bureaucracies
instead of buying life-saving equipment.

Money is being siphoned off to a handful of firms.

Ian Tabara

There are some of us who have worked on infrastructure projects on behalf of Australian or New Zealand based management consultants and delivered projects worth over $10 million.

Reports have been written and delivered to AusAID. The reason why some projects go unnoticed may be because they were not tied to some kiss ass politician.

Agatha Ayii

Right on the dot, Keith. Fed up to death seeing CBSC and JTAI running the Department of Health. Nuts, nuts, nuts!

Tell you what, they don't build any capacity by training staff or funding the department's activities. Instead they keep on pushing into our bureaucracy for more of their own recruitment. There is definitely a conflict of interest.

There are qualified Papua New Guineans around. The locals they recruit need real funding to help the department carry out its activites. The advisors they get are busy advocating policy changes to suit their sustainability and writing reports to convince AusAID for more money.

They justify their claims of shortage of manpower and lack of capacity thanks to the poor [economic and social] indicators of PNG.

We need our activites to be funded to reduce maternal and infants deaths. We need capacity in the Provinces and rural PNG promoting best practices and training the staff on the ground. Not writing bureaucratic reports.

Robin Mead

Add it to the "building" list: Building the Education Rorts (BER), Building Insulation Rorts (BIR), and Building Aid Gravy-trains (BAG) etc etc ...........

Phil Fitzpatrick

One of the curious things about the use of overseas consultants (AusAID gives money to non-Australian consultants too) is that you never see any reports of what they have actually done for their money.

Surely those should be in the public domain. All we get are short feel-good articles in the AusAID magazine.

Coffey International, which is a major recipient of the funds, produces the same feel-good stuff. I suppose if we want reports that would add another 10 -20% to the aid budgets?

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