PNG's State Owned Enterprises Challenged

By: Toa Sime/NBC
The government has made a complete overhaul in the boards of State Owned Enterprises or S-O-Es.

This comes as government sets its sight on service delivery in 2013.

The new boards took oath of office following a day's induction at the Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby today.

Public Enterprises and State Investments Minister, Ben Micah, told the new S-O-E boards, he and the government expects nothing less than 100 percent service delivery to the country's seven-million-plus population.

"We are going through embark on a very major and ambitious agenda to deliver 100 percent Telikom, 100 percent PNG Power, 100 percent Water PNG, 100 percent Air Niugini, 100 percent Ports to the rest of the population that does not have access to these services," Minister Micah said

Mr. Micah says Prime Minister Peter O'Neil and the government for that matter, expects a paradigm shift in the way they have been conducting business in the past.

"And I'm expecting and I believe the prime minister and the government will expect a paradigm shift and a complete new culture.

"We want to establish these companies and I am absolutely and totally confident that the calibre of men and women that we now have on these boards coming from private business coming from the accountancy, from the legal, from the engineering, people from human resource back ground that we now have on these boards, I believe we'll give a balance and mature and responsible management which will contribute to proper corporate governance of our companies," Micah said.

This is the first time ever for the government to bring together all the boards to its State Owned Enterprises, aimed at fostering unity among the various S-O-Es.