Buds Botike is the new District Administrator for Nawaeb open in Morobe. He was officially given the position yesterday through a hand-over take-over ceremony held at District Head Quarter office in Boana Station. Botike took over the DA position from James Neapukali. He has 25 years experience working in public administration office. Botike worked in Morobe Provincial Administration office and has also served in various districts in the area. Recently he worked with Kabwum district before given this role. Present to officiate the process was Provincial Human Resource Executive Manager Kusak Meruk. At the event, Meruk explained to the parties including the guests that it was an administrative process hence no interferences especially speeches should be allowed. He chaired the hand-over take-over event and ensured the it ran smoothly till signing of certificates. Guests present at the event were Wain Erap Local Level Government Council President Kunum Ameke and former district MP Kennedy Wenge. Sitting MP Hon. Theo Albert Pelgens was not at the event due to some work commitments with US Embassy.

The Madang Provincial Assembly yesterday afternoon sworn in five more newly elected Local Level Government (LLG) presidents and also voting of the new Deputy Governor for Madang Province. President of Usino LLG, Pewa Aimai was voted in unopposed as the new Deputy Governor for Madang Province. Meanwhile, the newly elected presidents have only taken up their presidential roles after the previous presidents vacated their positions to contest in the 2022 National General Election. The newly elected presidents are from Simbai, Nahu Rawa, Karkar, Sumgilbar and Transgogol LLGs. The other LLG presidents were already sworn into office back in September together with the Governor for Madang Ramsey Pariwa, Member for Rai Coast Kessy Sawang and Member for Madang, Bryan Kramer. Three new elected representatives were also sworn in yesterday. The new representatives are a women representative Margaret Anut, a business representative Kevin Murray and a youths representative, Bonnie Solomon.

Madang Provincial examination coordinator, Alphonse Igag, revealed in an interview that Madang province will commence in marking of the grade 10’s examination papers this week after falling two weeks behind the schedule due to lack of funding. Igag in an interview stressed that with the assistance of Madang Provincial government and Provincial Administration they have received a funding assistance of K365,000 which was finally cleared and will now be able to carry out the marking of grade 10’s examination papers, which is said to commence on Thursday 3rd of November. He said that a total of fifty teachers from Various high schools and secondary schools throughout the province have been invited to do the marking of grade 10’s examination papers. Teachers from the new high schools in the province have been invited as well to the marking, so to have the opportunity to learn the process of marking examination papers. Igag added that continuous requests were made to the Provincial government for assistance and eventually the request was finally recognized and funds were cleared for assisting in the marking of grade 10 examination papers. "Basically, most of the funds will go to the accommodation of the fifty teachers who will be doing the marking in Madang Tusbab Secondary school,” Igag said. “The main annual activities in the education sector are the grade 8’s and grade 10’s examinations, thus the Provincial government must secure funds prior to this as exams are National activities and when the time comes, we will not go around looking for assistance,” Igag said. Igag thanked the Provincial Administrator of Madang province, Frank Tonges Lau and the Provincial government in recognizing the request as it is important to the education of the future generation.

The families of Police Officers at the Red-sea Barracks banded together to present a petition to Prime Minister, James Marape. Disgruntled family and friends marched up to the Gordons Police Barracks demanding that the Government receive their petition. In an open forum facilitated by the NCD Metropolitan Superintendent, Gideon Ikumu, the petition comes after the discovery of the body of Late Senior Constable, Nelson Kalimda two days ago. Speaking first, the mothers raised points that were outlined in the petition to the Police Hierarchy and the Minister for Internal Security, Peter Tsiamalili Jnr who was accompanied by the Governor of Hela, Philip Undialu and other prominent citizens from the province. Presenting the petition, the families placed their demands to the Prime Minister, which was received on his behalf by Tsiamalili Jnr. Gathering near the field, the relatives and friends of the Late Snr Constable put forward their demands, seeking justice for their fallen brother. The family then stated that they would like to see justice prevail and all suspects involved to face the full brunt of the law regardless of their status and have called on the Government to see to it that these changes are done. Addressing the crowd, IS Minister Tsiamalili thanked the mothers for voicing their concerns, as they had highlighted many important issues during their speech. He stated that politicians may come and go but the system of government must remain to protect those who uphold the rule of law. “The system of Government must remain, must be conducive and must protect those that serve the system." Tsiamalili further assured the families that were present that he would review some of the policies currently in place and conduct necessary reforms.

Adding to the list of manic Monday issues on Monday this week, 6 floors of the 7-storey Fincorp Haus were cleared by all public servants working in the Education Department. Disgruntled public servants sat idle outside the building in disbelief of what was happening while their colleagues proceeded to remove boxes of equipment to relocate to their homes or in the case of the Teaching Services commission, the National Library and Archives, where they will work from as the formalities get sorted out. This comes after the proprietor of the building, Grand Columbia Limited, issued a notice of closure last week, stating that the Government Office Allocation Committee over the last 24 months had only payed 2 months of rent.   As it stands, the outstanding rental arears of the GOAC backdated since 2017 is K39million. On Monday that notice came to fruition as members of the DoE were asked to leave the building premises. Being the last man to exit the building, Teachers Services Commission Chairman, Mr. Samson Wangihomie expressed great concern as it is coming towards the end of the year, stating that this is a critical time for the for the commission. “We are coming towards the end of the year and all our school activities are happening, graduations are taking place. In our case [TSC], Teachers Colleges are graduating." He added that as for the case of the TSC, they have relocated to the National Libraries and Archives and will be working from there, to which he believes the only challenge they would face would be connectivity to the internet. “The only difficulty we are going to have is the connectivity to the internet in order to get our jobs done. But are moving so we are putting our equipment there so for our staff to at least have access to printing and all that kind of stuff. But that does not mean that we will stop working, we are working, the entire ministry is working and will continue to work." He added that he was thankful that other institutions such as the Port Moresby National High School, have assisted to take in one Division of the Department.

Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed that two suspects were arrested in relation to the disappearance and death of late Police Mobile Squad officer Nelson Kalimda, after the discovery of the abandoned vehicle that he was last seen driving. “The security forces have apprehended two suspects and have been able to identify others involved in this senseless killing of our member,” said the commissioner. He further commented that due to the sensitivity of the case, certain information pertaining to the case will be withheld to ensure that they do not allow the investigations to be compromised. He stated that there has been an increase in the amount of information received as to the motive behind what had happened and at the moment investigators are going through each of them to determine the truth behind Kalimda’s death.

Parts of Morobe Province are facing drought with valuable crops dying and water sources drying up. Communities in Markham, Huon Gulf, Nawaeb and Tewai Siassi districts are facing food and water shortages and are now looking for food and water to sustain themselves. In ward 25 located in the Lower Watut valley of Wampar Local Level Government, Huon Gulf District. Communities are facing drought that putting locals gardens and cash crops dying out. Ward councilor Tony Giowen said unfortunately they have lost two family homes through accidental bush fires through continuous sun. He said they are now facing food shortages with nil valuable crops to trade for money. Ward six Councilor in Wain Erap Local Level Government area in Nawaeb District also shared similar sentiments. Councilor Mandina Bum said garden foods and valuable commodities like coffee, vanilla and cocoa dried up since August. Mandina said a team from within the ward area have been engaged to assess damages and report to authorities.

The Marape and Rosso government welcomes The Japanese Development Industry (JDI) to help in the Master Planning of the new Special Economic Zones (SEZ) throughout the country; therefore, they are keen to restart work on Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone (PMIZ) in Madang Province. The initial ground breaking ceremony for PMIZ project took place about 10 years ago, however no progress has been done so far. Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru and Ambassador of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to Japan Sam Abal, arrived yesterday in Madang accompanying the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Japanese Development Industry (JDI) Soichi Kobayashi, to visit the proposed Marine Time Industrial park sight at Vidar area as part of their visit. CEO of (JDI) Dr. Kobayashi, accepted an invitation by Prime Minister James Marape during a meeting with him at Tokyo last month to help develop new (SEZ) Master plan for the country. Minister Maru during their visitation to Madang, stressed that they are here to see if their is a possibility to turn the PMIZ to be part of the Special Economic Zone. Minister Maru said that the government has enlisted the Japan Development Industry (JDI) to look at all the SEZ and to evaluate which ones are more viable and then to recommend to the government which development path to follow. "The government does not have to build the PMIZ Park, however we can just be able to invite private sectors (JDI) to build it, own it  and then charge the investors who will be using it," Maru Said. Minister Maru said that it is a way out for the people of Papua New Guinea as the project will generate millions of Kina and provide forty-thousand job opportunities. Meanwhile, Ambassador of PNG to Japan, Sam Abal thanked the Marape and Rosso government in recognizing the (SEZ) in the country. Ambassador Abal added that what the current government is doing now is to set in place the ability for foreign companies to come in by government promotion. " It is something that all leaders down to the grassroots, must support this project in going ahead," Abal said. He said that it is almost 50 years since Papua New Guinea gained it's independence, therefore the country must seek economic independence so that the people in villages can benefit more.

A total of 15, 900 grade eight students completed their 2022 National Examinations in Morobe Province. The students sat for English paper one on Monday, mathematics on Tuesday, combined Subject on Wednesday and successfully completed English paper two today. Provincial Education Program Advisor Mr. Keith Tangui thanked education officials, teachers and parents for their continuous support in ensuring students successfully completed their national examination. He said this year students behaved very well after examinations as there were no reports on school fights after grade 10 and 12 examinations, thus the grade eights must maintain this good behavior. He is also urging parents and guardians to keep their children occupied with positive activities that will keep them away from any trouble after the examinations.

The Toowoomba Darling Downs Mama Group Project who are residing in Brisbane Queensland, Australia with the Hume Ridge church women and the Shed Toowoomba group are partnering to support unprivileged young Papua New Guinean school girls especially in rural schools throughout the country, by supplying basic hygiene packs. The group's representative, Caroline Bonamedura explained that most of them in the Toowoomba Darling Downs Mama Group are single mothers living independently whilst providing for their families. "Thus being in type of situation we want to empower and assist our young female students in rural schools by providing this hygiene packs that will help them in their daily needs," She said. She said that providing this monthly hygiene packs to the girls will in a way help them to concentrate in their learning. "We want the girls to be self-reliant and be able to achieve their dreams and goals in life and that is through education," Caroline said. Caroline stressed that the Mama group aim is to reach as much as many female students as they can, however due to freight cost from Australia to PNG they could not be able to deliver most of the hygiene packs. Carolyne while on her leave took the opportunity to travel to Madang to donate a total of thirty four plus hygiene packs to the Karkar Secondary female students. This was the second donation being done by the Darlings Down Mama Group to rural schools of Papua New Guinea. She added that the group will still continue its donation to provide for the female students in rural schools of PNG.

Prime Minister James Marape this morning presented the final quarter Government Subsidiary of K158 million to the Education Department as payment for school fees for all students in the country. The Marape-Rosso Government appropriated K632 million for the GTSF for this year, having already paid K474 million. Present to receive the cheque from the Prime Minister were the Minister of Education, Jimmy Uguro and his Secreatary, Dr. Uke Kombra. Minister Uguro thanked the Marape-Rosso government for their commitment to delivering free education to the people, adding that the government was the peoples government. “This is the people’s government, so we are delivering full school fees to our people,” Uguro said. He added that the purpose of the GSTF is to leave no child behind in terms of schooling and to support the parents and guardians in alleviating the burden of having to pay fees. “This is a big call made by our government, so that no one in the places of the mountains to the seas and everywhere in the country gets left behind. That is why the government has committed to paying 100% school fees,” he stated. Minister Uguro further added that it is the departments mission to change the country through education, emphasizing that the ministry is pushing through these challenging times to achieve this goal. Addressing the members of the Education Department, Prime Minister Marape said this is part of the government’s contribution to ensuring that children attending school can be able to reach the highest achievement they possibly can. “Since I became Prime Minister in 2019, we continue to invest heavily in the education sector because of our firm view that education is our children's right,” Marape said. Marape also pledged that they will continue to assist parents with the GSTF moving forward to provide quality education.

Madang Provincial administrator Frank Lau, stressed in a press conference that most of the public servants in the Madang Provincial Government do not understand the processes and protocols in the Government structure and that is one of the issues that must be addressed. "This kind of weakness faced in Madang government is the lack of understanding by the public servants and that has caused a lot of confusion; thus, this will not go away really fast as it started more than 10  or 15 years ago and it will take some time to do away with this issue," Lau said. Mr. Lau revealed that with the assistance from the Department of Personal Management, they will be carrying out workshops next year and onwards for the public servants to understand basic processes and protocols in the government structure. He added that due to the 2022 National General Election they were not able to do that this year. "With the workshops, it will help educate the public servants about the processes to know what is the right thing to do and what is the wrong thing," he said.