Source: The National | Editorial | June 25, 2025

AFTER years of waiting, Papua New Guinea is finally holding its Local Level Government (LLG) elections.

More than 30,000 candidates have filed their nominations to contest for seats in the country’s 374 LLGs and 6,916 wards.

Electoral Commissioner, Simon Sinai has stated that K180 million allocated for the LLG elections which also covers the four by-elections for Aitape-Lumi, Kabwum, Porgera-Paiela and Usino-Bundi, including the Motu-Koitabu elections.

The LLGs, as a sub-national structure, was introduced as PNG’s third tier of government in 1995 when the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments (OLPLLG) was passed.

In 2014, districts were added as another tier of government, bringing the number of tiers of government to four: national, provincial, district, and then LLGs.

Although seen as the lowest tier of government, the LLG is the only structure closest to the people on the ground, both in the figurative and literal sense.

Sadly, as Government spending has increased over the years, its ability to reach the people in the rural areas has decreased.

The provincial and LLG levels are required to carry out service delivery functions and make local laws based on powers devolved to them by the OLPLLG.

However, government funding disbursed from the national level to bring about services for the people who need it the most, is required to pass through all three tiers before reaching LLGs.

Therein lies the issue that has plagued the country for many years – financial mismanagement.

Because rather than having funds flow downward in beneficial streams, the money now tends to trickle in smaller droplets to those at the ward level, leaving them to work with pocket change.

The introduction of the District Development Authority (DDA) Act 2014 can be seen to have further displaced and isolated the role of LLGs.

Unlike the former reforms, the DDA arrangement is directly funding the districts, which is intended to bypass much of the bureaucratic red tape.

However, since the introduction of the act, service delivery has been poor in most parts of the country and this problem has been compounded by the current socio-economic slump.

Many districts have not been fully funded, and funding has been delayed when needed most and postponed to near the end of the financial year at most times.

While the level of funding may not be much of a concern, management of these funds is worrying as there are cases of misuse of public funds in districts.

Although improving basic service delivery at the sub-national levels of government was the main motivation for implementing the act, the reform, however, has a challenging capacity to implement and manage its processes.

At the district level, for instance, there is a lack of qualified officers to implement projects, while at the national level the implementation of the DDA is not effectively monitored for lack of determinants assigning functions and responsibilities.

Service delivery has been hampered by the lack of capacity in the districts and LLGs.

Although it can be argued that this situation could improve with increased funding, structural and compliance issues are far more significant than funding.

And on the topic of compliance, this has been sorely lacking in the oversight of the country’s finances, especially at the sub-national level.

In the report: “Sub-national governance in PNG – poor and worsening”, author Maholopa Laveil, a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, said that political bureaucracy and influence were to blame for many governance issues found within the country’s sub-national government structure.

“A culture of non-compliance has also crept into the sub-national governments, partly because penalties are not well-defined or enforced,” he said.

“Non-compliance and weak financial management practices have led to arrears in reporting, and discrepancies between national and sub-national accounts.

“It is hard to take seriously calls for greater provincial funding and autonomy until sub-national governments show that they are committed to improving expenditure governance.”

This is evident as we have seen that many reports and acquittals, which should contain the expenditure of public funds by those in the sub-national level, are yet to be submitted to government authorities.

These would be the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs and Department of Implementation and Rural Development, including the Ombudsman Commission and the Auditor General’s Office among others.

Therefore, it is imperative that the inner workings of the country’s sub-national level, particularly LLGs, be given enough resources to function efficiently.

Such an approach will empower people from the bottom-up.

Only then can the people truly be able to contribute to the development of the country.