Editorial | The National 

The third-tier is the most important government in the land by virtue of it being closest to the majority of the people.

The local level government (LLG) is also the least important and the least resourced among the three tiers of government.

It does not even have a legal arrangement of its own and has to hang on to the tail coat of the provincial governments under the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government.

For the people’s mandate, it is tagged to the Organic Law on National and Local Level Government Elections which provides for both national and local level government elections to be run concurrently separated by three months but, in its execution, the poor LLG has suffered inordinate delays and outright disrespect on more than one occasion.

As a final insult, Parliament in 2014 passed the district development authorities (DDA) that now receive direct funding from budget through the district services improvement programme, leaving the LLG to perform its duties by whatever means available.

All of these anomalies and frustrations, intended or otherwise, have been gathered into a number of lawsuits now before the courts. The latest of them has been brought to the Supreme Court by one of the oldest LLGs in the land, Mt Giluwe.

Mt Giluwe LLG has a section 19 Supreme Court reference seeking interpretations on certain important questions relating to applications of various laws which impact the duties, responsibilities and operations
of LLGs. The laws included in the reference constitute the following:

1. Constitution sections 50 – right to vote and stand for public office, 105 – 100 – Exercise of legislative power 187A, 187B, 187C – Provincial and local level governments.
2. Organic Law on Provincial & Local Level Government sections: 34 – Duration of office; 33A – District development authorities;
3. Organic Law National & Local Level Government Elections section: 234 –
4. District Development Authority Act.

Nineteen questions are referred to the court.

Without repeating all these questions, they pertain to the following main issues:

1. The concurrent running of elections for the national and local level government elections as per section 34(1) of the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments;
2. Whether or not the delay to hold a LLG election concurrently during the 2022 National Elections was unconstitutional and, if it is, can Parliament be dissolved to correct the anomaly;
3. What authority determines whether the LLG president is elected by the people or by the ward councillors and whether the current plan to do both is constitutional?
4. Whether or not the actions of Parliament in 1995 in repealing and replacing the Organic Law on Provincial Governments with the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments had the effect of centralising the powers of provinces and districts back with the central government contrary to the intent of Parliament to introduce greater autonomy by decentralising powers to the provinces;
5. Whether the establishment of the DDA conflicts with and is contrary to the intent and purpose of the Organic Law of Provincial and Local Level Government and usurps its powers;
6. And, finally, the role of a politician and a public servant are to be determined fully as some confusion seems to have arisen in the DDA scheme of things.

These are altogether very important questions and go to the heart of the current uncomfortable relationship between the three tiers of government.

The Supreme Court is the right authority to put to rest the uneasiness that has affected the uneven delivery of goods across the country.

Without entering the legal arguments in any way, we say that the LLG is the oldest in the land. The 1951 PNG Ordinance from the colonial Australian government authorised the local government council system.

Some of the most important roads, bridges, towns and cities in the land have been built on the strength of this system.

It cannot and must never be ignored out of hand.