I thought Id share my thoughts on the proposed Lae city commission as follows: 1) Lae city - I think it is a big administrative burden on the MPG to administer both the largest province as well as the second largest city in PNG. So it makes sense to come up with an alternative administrative arrangement to promote focused management of municipal services in Lae city without the distractions and burdens that the demands of managing both PNGs largest province and its second largest city places on our provincial authorities. 2) Morobe province - What are the financial arrangements for this new city commission and would its creation take away Morobes internal revenues given that most, if not all, of our internal revenues are generated in Lae? If Morobe is going to give up its internal revenues, what alternatives are there to fill the hole so created? How concrete and sustainable are these alternative revenue sources? We need to consider these questions against the benefits that Morobe will likely gain from freeing up the administrative burden by shifting Lae onto someone elses shoulders. In other words, would the shifting of Lae to a commission and the consequent administrative efficiency that would be gained sufficient to compensate for the loss of our revenues to the commission? Overall, I think the idea of isolating the administrative burden of Lae is a good one for both Lae and Morobe. But issues in respect of control, finances, administration and also the emotional attachment that we Morobeans have to Lae must be thoroughly thought out, debated, and planned before bringing something like a commission in. Most importantly, we Morobeans must know exactly how the creation of a commission for Lae will affect us so that at least we can take action to protect ourselves. When I say protecting ourselves, I do not mean this in a negative way. Rather it means for us to be proactive and to find alternatives to ensure we can sufficiently cover for whatever we will be giving up when Lae is taken from us.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 05:57:45 +0000
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