MINISTER for State-owned Enterprise William Duma told senior executives of all the State-owned entities to life their game to truly serve the people of Papua New Guinea.
Minister Duma made this statement during the meet and greet hosted by his Ministry at Hilton Hotel on Thursday, Jan 21.
He said the Marape government expects SOEs to contribute to the efforts to improve the quality of life for Papua New Guineans.
Minister Duma said SOEs control the basic necessities of modern life and government’s expectations are for the SOEs to provide, quality, safe and accessible drinking water, accessible, reliable and affordable communication services, affordable and reliable electricity, efficient and affordable air transport service and efficient port services.
“This must be done effectively and profitable.
“In January 2019, we held a similar gathering when I was Minister responsible for SOEs and my expectation and challenge to SOEs were to; develop and add value to appropriate products and service to increase revenue, minimise revenue leakage, and declare war on wastage, enhance governance and accountability, develop and execute appropriate business transformation strategies and initiative and deliver return on investment.
“My expectation, as Minister for SOEs and the government’s expectation have not changed. Many, if not all of these expectations have not fully materialise and I understand many are being addressed through SOE reform program approved by the Marape government in October 2019,” Minister Duma said.
Duma added starting this year he expects KCH and SOEs to deliver on their promises contained in their annual operating plans.
“Complete the Water PNG/Eda Ranu merger by June 2020, implement short-term solutions for reliability of power in major centres, the recovery of Air Niugini to be completed by end of 2021, commence work on privatisation of Air Niugini as directed by NEC, divestment of non-core assets in KTHL- tied to debt refinancing and restructure KCHL in anticipation of emerging competition, complete merger of Telikom and b-mobile by end of 2021, review SOE/ State debt structure and review the KCH purpose and mission and implement multi-lateral funding support program,” Minister Duma said.
He said some of the on-going issues with all the SOEs are the leakages and inflated contracts and recruitment of wrong people.
“All SOEs must identify impediments to recovery and profitability- is it political influence or interference by the Chairman and Directors?
“Specify what can be done to remove impediments and all SOEs must provide a brief to KCH containing their frank and honest view as to what needs to be done to improve performance and return to profitability,” Minister Duma said.