Autonomy Committee undergo induction

After being sworn in last month, members of the new ENB Provincial Autonomy Advisory Committee underwent an induction workshop this week in Kokopo.

Majority of the nine-member committee were present, led by it’s Chairman Chief Sir Leo Dion, for presentations by relevant divisions of the ENB Provincial Administration, informing the committee on what exist, and what is required to help the province to be more autonomous, as a government.

The province’s drive for autonomy, which started 24 years ago [2001], was to seek greater powers from the national government, in the 3 areas of finance, administration and politics.

Addressing the meeting was ENB Provincial Administrator Mr. Levi Mano, who acknowledged the committee members for accepting their appointments and encouraged them to take the lead in directing the provincial government and it’s administration, on what needs to be done.

“We are trying to intensify our efforts, on how best to move this agenda forward with the current legal framework in place. Your advice should help us frame up our programming, our planning into the future and also the way we link up those programs into the budget,” he said.

A long-term member of the ENB Autonomy Committee Mr. Patrick Varagat gave a rundown of the history of the committee and the way forward.

He said that since the new law on Decentralisation was developed in 2014-2015, the national government has failed to introduce and debate it in parliament.

“The delay in implementing the 2018 Inter-Government partnership agreement has also stalled autonomy for the province,” he said.

All these factors prompted the ENB Power Sharing Committee (as it was known back then), to come up with a ward empowerment policy.

“The committee looked at Clause 42 and 44 of the Organic Law and enacted uniformed laws at the provincial, LLG and ward levels, to enable Ward Development Committees to implement and impose fines at the local government and ward levels,” he iterated.

In closing the workshop, ENB Deputy Provincial Administrator for Socio-Economic Services and Ex-Officio to the committee, Mr. Marakan Uvano said that out of the 3 areas of decentralised powers being requested from the national government, financial autonomy should take precedence.

“We cannot talk about administration and politics, without building up financial stability first. So that is our priority. We need to be more proactive and aggressive,” he said.

And with a secretariat in place, the committee should be ready to work with the provincial administration to progress it’s planned programs.