By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
National Forestry Authority Managing Director John Mosoro’s top assignment is reforming forestry to is to remove the negative chronic public perception that NFA is corrupted.
And a top priority is to give female officers opportunity to advance in their career. When I took over Forestry I changed the policy that we emphasis on gender equal participation so the first people that I approved for training were those two female officers that have graduated with me. Those are kind of things I will be promoting some of my officers both male and female to attend this course.
.i want to promote good governance in forestry especially for me I have to run the forest board and I so I have to attend the six months course at PILAG to undertake advance diploma in Government (leaderships and management . ). I have to lead by example under the public service reform to promote good governance reduce corruption and compliance in Public office.
And Mossoro also pushed to make NFA community program more visible and to support Marape –Rosso Government’s Connect PNG program.
‘’Since I took over as the Managing Director for Forestry in June 2021 my purpose of me been appointed as the MD is to get rid of complacent and corruption in Forestry.
Corruption has been part of forestry all these years. When I got appointed one of those key areas is to get rid of corrupt officers within the National Forestry Authority. Which I started last year
We completed the organization structure last year and Department of Personnel Management has approved it. We start to implement some of Government policies. And Forestry for the first time there is a major improvement in Forestry in many ways. First of all in our Finance. Our account system has improved a lot we now know exactly how much money we are making and where that money has been generated from within the forest sector. That’s the first thing our financial management system.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS SECTION
Financial registry system has been improved. Secondly our Human Resource Division has been improved. I have appointed number of directors. And importantly is this we want to get rid of corruption in forestry. So I have created an internal affairs section. That for the first time and is headed by a former senior experienced National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Detective. And he is very qualified. What we are doing in our internal affairs is if we detect any corrupt practice by our officers, we give two warnings and we terminate them. And some of these senior forestry officers, they have been terminated. Through the new system that we have made. I can’t mention names. The former Plantation manager and we transferred him to Northern Province. He was complacent and corruption. So that is what we are doing now.
CONNECT PNG PROGRAM
Second is Connect PNG program. Since I was former economic adviser in the Prime Minister’s department I brought in connect PNG program. And connect PNG is a major Government policy right now and that is to link the economic corridor of this country. And Forestry is playing a key role. And that is what the Prime Minister wants us to do now in forestry. All the logging company before we give the license, we realign the roads and the logging company goes in to harvest the logs and build road and the Governments comes after. And this has never been happing before, now it’s happening. And these are changes that are happening. We have looked after our staff very well. Now they have risk allowances, housing allowances, Medicare. That is happening in Forestry right now. And everyone is happy this is a major plan that we have. It has never happen before. In forestry there are major changes happening in forestry.
STAFF WELFARE
We are looking after our staffs very well. Now they have risk allowances, housing allowance. , Medicare. These are happing in forestry right now. There are good things happening in forestry. We now have a revenue generation plan; this has never happen before. So now we can project how much money we can generate revenue in the industry. That is something that has not happen before. Now it’s happening in Forestry. We can know how much money we can make
KUMUL DIWAI LIMITED
And important of course the state marketing Agency. It has not happen. It has been in the Forestry Act for too long. Since I move across from PM’s Department, PM has given me instruction that create this State marketing Agency immediately so that this agency will be called Kumul Diwai Limited. And it is my mandate to establish this. Which I have already worked on. The NEC submission is ready for submission. And it is a very important Agency that it must happen when I’m the MD. For the first time NFA will sign joint venture agreement directly with the land owners. Landowners will get the permit. We will into partnership. And we will run our own logging operations. And we will test the market out there. So that what’s happening in Forestry now. These are some of the key things that are happening.
TRADE AND INVESTMENT DIRECTORATE
Honorable Prime Minister James Marape has given instruction that the recently created Ministry of international trade and investment and we must reorganize and I have create a directorate called trade and investment in Forestry see how we can work with them to export our downstream product, our timber our minor forest product, our sandal wood, our eagle wood, all these oil so it comes under trade and investment. We will establish our first office in Vanimo in West Sepik.
There are lots of things happening in NFA. We have changed the image of forestry physically on the inside and outside, structure and our financial system and our ICT.
Log Export Development Levees
On Log Export Development Levees (LEDL), in the past that’s not been managed properly. When I took the office we established the LEDL Secretariat and we have three Trustees who sign it. Secretary for Planning, Secretary for Finance and myself. The three of us are owner of LEDL and we sign. After the committee went through all the proposals and we sign and we pay LEDL funds. It’s not a one man decisions. It’s done by the committee and the three trustees. And LEDL funds are paid directly to the District where the Logging operations is been dome. And of course the royalties, I have put a stop in paying our royalties as its not been managed very well in the past. I now control the royalty funds and when it will be paid. So there is a whole change in forestry now.
