Corruption

When governments don’t have to go through tender processes because speed is essential, they give funds to service providers without the usual safeguards.

These services might include providing lifesaving equipment, purchasing medicine from overseas or replacing destroyed telecommunications equipment.

Once the rules of the tendering process no longer apply, politicians and public service authorities are able to award contracts to cronies and wantoks.

Often these suppliers have little experience and inadequate skills and who, as a result, provide inefficient services, poor materials or unreliable equipment, all at outrageously inflated prices.

The problems caused by these failings can make disasters worse and cause much suffering.

Unaccountability

We have seen no audit reports of the millions of kina spent on the devastating Highlands earthquake of 2018. Parliament has never received information showing how the funds were spent.

There is no doubt some people profited improperly. But no one bothers. Life just moves on.

The same comments can be made in relation to the K6 billion spent on dealingwith Covid-19 a couple of years later, although now the International Monetary Fund is demanding acquittals.

Unpreparedness

Papua New Guinea is prone to disaster.

In most years there are floods that destroy homes, villages and crops.

There are also often volcanic eruptions, long periods of drought, inundating tides and devastating cyclones.

Yet when you look at the budgets of the government departments responsible for disasters, you will find little provision has been made for them.

PNG’s national policy for disaster response is ad hoc. It can be described as almost negligent.

Poor coordination

Every time a disaster response is reviewed, the lack of coordination between agencies is always reported.

This problem applies to donors and aid providers as much as to domestic agencies.

When there is a disaster, private sector companies give assistance, as do foreign embassies, international NGOs, multilateral organisations and provincial and national governments.

There is assistance at various levels and in different forms which sometimes meets needs and sometimes don’t.

Improved coordination is always recommended but very rarely achieved.

Lack of data

Do we know exactly how many people live within areas affected by floods in East Sepik Province? Do we know how many people with disabilities live in a particular district or how many houses and other major structures there are in towns and villages?

These data can be of great importance in knowing how much to budget on recovery after disaster strikes.

PNG’s last reliable census was undertaken in 2001. In 2011 the National Statistics Office admitted the attempted census which was so inaccurate as to be useless.

Censuses are supposed to be conducted every 10 years but the first census since 2001 is planned for this year, 13 years late.

People born since 2002 have never been counted. So we estimate population. When disaster strikes, we don’t really know the extent of the recovery required.

We just allocate K10 million or whatever because we guess that will do.

Exceptions

I know that, during disasters, there are people who work very hard to provide assistance and recovery.

There are good leaders like Governor Allan Bird who uses money saved from the Provincial Services Improvements Program to respond to disasters.

And there are some beautiful souls in organisations like MAF aviation who assist during disasters.

We say thank you to all these exceptions to disappointment.