Defence changes in the next decade

BY REGINALD RENAGI

A BETTER BALANCED approach to decision-making within the Papua New Guinea defence organisation requires processes to encourage consultation and reconcile diverse views in a timely manner leading to clearer decisions and better accountability.

Defence has had too many committees with the same senior-ranked members.

Over the past two years, these committees have been reduced to less than six.

But they still need to improve their assertiveness to manage many outstanding issues built up over previous years.

The future PNGDF must give high priority to sovereign defence tasks.

More of the Ministry’s attention and resources will need to focus on urgent internal security challenges and national development initiatives like civic action tasks.

To perform its future roles effectively, defence operations will have to be more responsive.

This means developing highly-mobile special operations forces that can react more quickly to internal security contingencies.

More attention must focus on readiness and sustainability than on buying expensive equipment.

The future PNGDF must be a better organised and well-equipped force.

It should be innovative and flexible and share support functions with the civil police force.

The Defence secretary and Force commander must be responsible for implementation of a force restructure and the subsequent reorganisation described in Part I of this series (see post below).

A small force restructure implementation team should be established this year.

Ongoing evaluation must be done to monitor achievement of resource efficiencies.

The management of change will be undertaken by line managers so that process and outcomes are owned by the personnel and organisations involved in the activity.

Responsibility for creating new sub-organisations should belong to the programme manager who will be responsible for the arrangements proposed by the review.

The PNGDF is currently not structured to adequately fulfill its present roles, particularly in internal security, while at the same time engaged in nation building tasks.

A previous Cabinet decision to raise the manpower ceiling to 5,200 by 1995 did not materialise, demonstrating the then government’s lack of political will.

The present security situation demands that the government must rescind the decision in late 2001 to cut the PNGDF’s strength by over 60%.

 It must commit to boosting the military’s size to over 10,000 and to increase the size of the police force.

The restructuring must be conducted in phases to permit the initial reorganisation to take place at minimum cost.

The government needs to make a continuous and stable investment for a decade to properly reshape the department and the PNGDF.

There is no other option but to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of defence within the next decade.

The writer is confident that an appropriate level of defence funding for national security can be achieved.

Defence needs appropriate financial resources to execute a restructuring plan.