Tuesday 6/09/2022

Member re-elect for Nuku and reappointed Minister for Public Services Hon. Joe Sungi has announced that he will be looking at ensuring Public Servants housing is a condition of employment; something that has been overlooked over the years.

The Minister in admitting that the Government is not taking care of its 128,000 public servants throughout the country, added that housing should become a condition of employment for public servants and would fight for this change. This he said will result in an improvement in the performance of officers in the Public Service.

‘’ Before you talk about the performance of public servants, we must also ensure that the welfare of our public servants is taken care of. So, housing will no longer be ‘Not a Condition of Employment, rather, I will fight hard to ensure laws are amended to make Housing a ‘Condition of Employment. I will raise this issue in Parliament to ensure that everyone understands, that if we are talking about public servants’ performance, we must ensure their welfare is taken care of; and housing is one aspect. The current public servants’ housing allowance is lousy, how do we expect them to pay for their rent in a city like Port Moresby, it’s just not real,” stressed an irate Minister Sungi.

The Minister further added that most of the laws are outdated and need to be reviewed to suit the current conditions we are now facing regarding the terms and conditions of employment in the Public Service. He added that the Public Service Ministry is serious about providing incentives to motivate public service performance.

Meantime, the Minister confirmed that a housing project that was initiated earlier for public servants will be launched this month in Bomana, NCD.

//ENDS//