CENSUS IS AT FIELD EVALUATION STAGE| MINISTER MASERE

National Population Census is a very important process that is undertaken by any Government across the globe and PNG is no exception.

Minister for Administrative Services Richard Masere said Census is important and after every 10 years, it is carried out to understand the country’s population.

Minister Masere said this in response to questions raised in Parliament by Governor of Southern Highlands William Powi in regard to the status of Census, it’s budget and when it will be announced.

“Census commenced on 16 June 2024. The progress and planning of the Census had commenced in 2020, but unfortunately due to COVID-19 the process was delayed in 2020 up until 2024.

The proposed budget was K310 million and it was proposed to be moved to be conducted in 2026, but I took a drastic measure to conduct Census and review the budget that was established to cost the country around K310 million due to prudential management, we were able to downscale the budget from K310 million to K153 million in order for us to undertake this very important process,” Mr. Masere said.

He added that the process that was initially planned, was for the Census work to be done within two weeks.

“Around the world they normally mark two weeks to conduct the Census. As preparation was continuing the funding that was made available in 2020 to get K15million worth of materials to carry out the Census, was unfortunately destroyed in the January 10, black Wednesday.

As a result, the funding was received in May 2024 which was three weeks away from conducting the Census. With all these challenges, Census took 6 months to conduct,” he said.

Minister Masere explained that the government delivered in a record time of 6 months within their budget and framework which was given to us to work with.

The Census is a process that takes a few months to conclude. After it is completed, there is another process that kicks in, which is called the field evaluation.

The field evaluation is intended to move around to ensure that those missed out during the actual Census are captured during the evaluation,” he said.

Minister Masere said he has issued and instructed that they be given 6 months to conduct the evaluation process and ensure it is completed so that the Prime Minister could announce to the country the actual population in the country.