An Australia-funded Leadership Foundation workshop which was held recently in Port Moresby brought together 20 emerging leaders from various law and justice agencies and focused on the role of leadership in addressing anti-corruption.
It highlighted the importance of anti-corruption practices, critically analysing real-world scenarios, and providing information and strategies for identifying corruption and how to overcome it.
There was a panel discussion that followed which focused on anti-corruption, transparency, good governance, traditional laws and culture and the challenges faced by the country in upholding its Constitution.
In attendance to this leadership workshop were Mr Richard Kassman OBE, Board Director of Transparency International Papua New Guinea, Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika GCL KBE CSM OBE; Dame Carol Kidu DBE AO; Mr. Thomas Eluh, Interim Chairman -Independent Commission Against Corruption; and Mr. Wilson Onea, Acting Director Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit -Bank of Papua New Guinea.
Mr. Kassman challenged the participants to be courageous in standing up for what is right and be accountable to bringing change to Papua New Guinea.
“Don’t wait until you are a prosecutor or a secretary.”
“As you go up, you will get bigger challenges and must build a strong foundation now to be more resilient against corruption.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Paul Lehmann from the Australian High Commission encouraged the participants to grasp opportunities to learn to be better leaders and achieve greater results.
“I hope today we can all learn something as our panelists speak about Leadership and Anti-Corruption.”
“Discussions such as these help us to understand the importance of transparency, good governance, and good leadership skills for greater outcomes.”
“Understanding these concepts and challenges is vital if the Law and Justice sector is to develop the leadership skills and capacities needed to achieve safety, security, and prosperity for Papua New Guineans.”
Mr. Lehmann added that the commitment by the Australian Government under the PNG Australia Partnership to support the Law and Justice sector to develop a sustainable pipeline of professional development opportunities for up-and-coming leaders.
So far 39 participants have take part in the Leadership Foundations Program since it started in 2022.
The program is run by the Leadership Learning and Development Reference Group (LLDRG) to oversee the law and Justice Sector’s leadership capacity development, the National Coordinating Mechanism (NCM) has created the LLDRG to foster leadership skills of executive leaders, emerging leaders, and women in leadership across the law and justice sector.