Governor for Western Highlands Province, Wai Rapa, has brushed aside the report on Post Courier online over the weekend by unattached public servants of the province claiming that the recruitment of public servants was done through bias, nepotism and through political influence.
Mr Rapa in a media conference on Monday made it clear that he had nothing to do on the recent recruitment of new public servants and removal of the old public servants of the Western Highlands Provincial Administration and the public servants of the province’ four districts.
“I’m the head of the political wing of the province while the provincial administrator is the head of the provincial administration wing who oversee the affairs of the administration of the province,” he said.
Mr Rapa said as the head of the political wing of the province he has the line of demarcation of responsibility to perform and stick into it.
“My job is to run the affairs of the province. I have no power to interfere in the recruitment and selection of the public servant. That is the sole responsibility of the Department of personnel management and the provincial affairs,” he said.
He said the recruitment of public servants is made by the DPM upon the recommendation made by the provincial selection committee.
Mr Rapa said the process of recruiting public servants is govern by the public management act and the general orders.
“There are laws guiding the process so I have no single jurisdiction to influence or manipulate in the event of recruiting public servants,” he said.
Mr Rapa said those unattached officers who cry foul over their positions didn’t meet the criteria set by the DPM in the structure review and advertisement of positions, thus they were considered unsuccessful in the selection.
“Age has already caught up with some of them to remain as public servants. And the other thing is, they don’t have decent qualifications in order to maintain their positions,” he said.
Mr Rapa also made it clear that the structure review of recruiting public servants in Western Highlands Province was authorized by the Department of Personnel Management in 2019.
“Since then, the acting administrator of the former regime in the province didn’t implement the structure and put out all the Public servants’ positions on market as per the direction given by DPM. The structure review of the public servants has been delayed until I come into power in 2022,” he said.
Mr Rapa said the structure review of recruitment of public servant was implemented by the new regime in 2023.
He said the process of recruitment was done transparently without any discrepancies.
Mr Rapa said the new public servants were recruited on qualification merits.
The governor believed that he had a good public service machinery in place now to drive his programs and projects.
“The province has for the first time to have a permanent administrator with qualified public servants to drive the programs and projects that my government initiates,” he said.
Mr Rapa said he believed in stability. Mr Rapa however said those unattached officers are placed on pool.
“This means they will be recruited again when there is a position arise,” he said.
He said Western Highlands Provincial Administration needs more public servants to be recruited.
Meanwhile, over more than 100 experienced public servants who have been replaced with new officers made a public out cry last week claiming that they have been unlawfully removed.
Unattached public servants, including executive managers and support staff from the Western Highlands Provincial Administration and the province’s four district administrations, were replaced by new officers.
WHP has a total of 374 total established public servants.
The disgruntled public servants held a press conference at Paula Haus Win Guest House last Friday and expressed their grievances describing the situation as the dangerous trend in the recruitment and selection in the provincial administration.
The aggrieved public servants said Political influence has played major role in the recent recruitment and selection of public servants.
They claimed the recruitment drive was purely done on bias and nepotism with the interference of huge political influence resulted in new brand of officers occupying the positions.
They said the recruitment was orchestrated by the political cronies under the current regime of the provincial government.
” We are questioning the criteria used by the selection committee to appoint and recruit the new officers. Are the new officers being recruited on qualification and experience merits? ” they asked.
They said it is funny to see some top senior positions are now occupied by inexperienced officers.
“It is quite unbecoming for a grade 10 and 12 dropouts to occupy the grade 12 – 13 positions in the districts.
Those officers were just picked up from the streets by their political cronies,” he said.
They described the situation as one of the sad day for the Western Highlands Province.
The disgruntled public servants said the province is in chaos because major programs like educations will not be properly rolled out to the districts.
They said the government programs and projects are implemented by the public servants.
“And in order for the people back in the district level to feel the effect of the government’ s programs, experienced public servants will make it happen by delivering them so that it can trickle down to the community level,” they said.
They said it will not be the case anymore for the province.
They are now calling on the department of personnel management and the provincial affairs with the responsible ministers and other relevant line government agencies to step in immediately and look into the matter and rectify it.