Comments

I made a comment on the FB post looking for guidance as to where to get local short course training for my friends who run a bungalow business on Tanna. To date no one has provided a response telling me who I might contact or even whether what I requested is available. I would really appreciate some feedback.

Hi Peter, Thanks for your comments. Yes, lines of formal accountability are often weak, but the nature of this weakness varies across space. The research suggests responses in Eastern Highlands need to be different than Milne Bay, for example. As I suggest in the discussion paper and elsewhere (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2993709), anti-corruption efforts in PNG have been hindered by a tendency for one-size fits all policies, that are suitable for some contexts but not others. Take the District Development Authorities Act (2014) for example. The accountability relationships in the DDA act might suit East New Britain, but they are not at all appropriate for Gulf province - where patronage politics often inhibits possibilities for good governance. In addition, while subnational governments now receive more money through DSIP/PSIP, sub-national anti-corruption efforts remain weak. And yes, many respondents were concerned about working across 'two worlds'. As a junior male employee in New Ireland said (see report): "I am unable to complete my tasks when wantoks show up and are waiting outside the office... That leaves me in an unstable mental situation because I am caught between …serving them and my colleagues not being happy with me, and the fear of my wantoks not accepting me if I do not attend to their requests". Happy to compare notes - feel free to email me: grant.walton@anu.edu.au. Good luck with the PhD! Best, Grant

Hi Medley, you can find part two here: https://devpolicy.org/governance-ethics-and-leadership-in-papua-new-guinea-a-personal-perspective-part-two-20190322/.

Very interesting. It's shows that most of the foreign aid from powerful and the rich countries in the world seems like as a "foreign disaster" for the recipient countries. I hope that the rich countries may evaluate their foreign aid system to aligned with the real condition of the recipient country.

Interesting and would like to read part two of this his writing.

I have just put on line an archive of material on witchcraft in Africa. It includes three usable databases related to witchcraft, one concerning 525 press reports (1960-2010), one wherein SES questions relate to witchcraft beliefs in Tanzania, and one a 600 page correspondences files between my self and Dr. Duncan MacDonald, ( UK, ex-Zambia, Kenya) Correspondence, 1980-2015, mainly his thoughts from a psychological, behavioral point of view. See NormanMillerArchive.com. This is a test site, estimated at 8000 pages, 30% on witchcraft. Some visual evidence. Criticisms welcome. NNM

Thank you for publishing about the conference. It was truly a learning experience for everyone who contributed to it. Hoping for similar opportunities in the future.

Hi Hayley, yes we've just posted a podcast of it: https://soundcloud.com/devpolicy/tax-pirates-and-tax-fairness.

Hi. I wasn't able to make it to the talk. Is there a recording of it somewhere? Thanks

Invisible management is an apt term. As a half Solomon Islander and half Australian running a social enterprise agribusiness in the Solomons since 2015 I never come across the SIRF. I wonder whether facilities are too far away from the eventual customers of an aid program - citizens and if the concept of a facility perpetuates the insular bubble and donor interests of foreign aid.

Hi Grant Really nice piece of work. I've just completed 9 months of ethnographic PhD fieldwork in Moresby looking at the links between ethics and performance on the PNG public service, mostly at a central level. Many similar themes and findings. We should compare notes. 🙂 Early days yet for me in relation to data analysis, but a couple of quick points. Firstly, it seems to me that one of the keys to fighting corruption is to establish a more effective performance and accountability culture in the PNG public service. In one sense, 'corruption' is just one end of the scale that deals with the "appropriate and effective" use of public resources. One of the main challenges here (highlighted in a couple of examples in your paper) seems to me to be that formal accountabilities are not always clear and accountability practices are often weak. There seem to be a range of reasons for this - some are 'top down' (e.g. politicisation), others are 'horizontal' (e.g. the influence of wantok relationships in individual performance management), others are more broadly environmental (e.g. a tendency at times to'make do' with verbal rather than written accountabilities). On the whole, it's challenging to hold others to account if accountabilities aren't clearly defined and appropriate written records aren't always kept. Having said that, I also found (as your paper mentioned) that there are very, very many PNG public servants who strongly wish to 'do the right thing', and are motivated by a strong desire to serve the people of PNG. They work hard in a very challenging environment, made more stressful by the fact that they are consciously working across 'two worlds' - the world of their family, village and community, and the world of the bureaucracy. Navigating this boundary raises deep questions of identity for many. I'd be interested to know if this came up as a issue in your qualitative research.

Quite an insightful article, thanks. Echos some of my experiences in running a business in Solomon Islands as well.