Good governance is vital to Papua New Guinea

By REG RENAGI

Political stability and good governance is vital for Papua New Guinea’s future growth and prosperity. The government must at all times promote good governance to ensure transparency and accountability in everything it does for its citizens.

Parliament must strive towards 'good government and 'clean politics'. It is time we got rid of the special interests that is now corrupting our political system. The evidence is so widespread today but still political leaders pretend ignorance when challenged by media and the public.

If we do not stop corruption, it will soon completely destroy our government and society.

The government can now start combating corruption using some of these strategies:

• Promote open discussion of the most significant problems facing parliament and develop priorities for reforms needed to make government's operations transparent and accountable.
• Ensure proper oversight of government functions by strengthening internal mechanisms, including investigative and enforcement capacity with respect to acts of corruption and facilitating public access to information necessary for meaningful outside review.
• Establish conflict of interest standards for public employees and effective measures against illicit enrichment, including stiff penalties for those who utilise their public positions to benefit private interests.
• Legislate for governments at all levels to adopt and enforce measures against bribery in all financial or commercial transactions both with the state, and with external actors.