Governor Gary Juffa’s call for a full forensic audit and a structural overhaul of Papua New Guinea’s public sector highlights a long-standing crisis in governance — one where inefficiency, unchecked expansion, and systemic leakages have undermined service delivery for decades.
His remarks draw attention to several critical issues. Juffa notes that PNG does not suffer from a shortage of plans or policies, but from an inability to carry them out due to poor structuring, inadequate resourcing, and entrenched workplace complacency. This suggests the problem is cultural as much as structural. The 2018 Auditor-General’s finding of 1,419 state entities — now even higher — illustrates a system that has expanded without corresponding efficiency gains. Many of these entities are underperforming or redundant, yet still draw from the national budget.
With 51% of the national budget allocated to the public sector and payroll audits revealing K26 million in fortnightly leakages, the scale of mismanagement is staggering. Juffa’s statement implicitly warns that PNG is bleeding funds that could otherwise improve infrastructure, health, and education. His proposal for joint oversight by the Prime Minister’s Office and Parliament, permanent parliamentary reform committees, and benchmarking against international standards signals a push for systemic accountability rather than cosmetic adjustments.
In essence, Juffa is calling for a “hard reset” — dismantling dysfunctional structures, enforcing accountability, and aligning PNG’s public sector to performance-based models. Whether political will matches the urgency of his rhetoric will determine if this becomes a genuine turning point or another shelved reform plan.