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REPORT ON PNG OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP – 2ND NATIONAL WORKSHOPP A G E | 1

PNG OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

2ND NATIONAL WORKSHOP

Held at Lamana Hotel, Port Moresby, N.C.D.

On Friday, 23rd September 2016: 9am to 4:30pm


I N D E X

PAGE NO. CONTENTS

1 Cover Page

2 Index

3 Programme

4 Attendance List

5 Opening Address


PROGRAMME

Moderator: Mr Martin Brash

9:00 – 9:40 Arrival and Registration

9:40 – 9:45 Welcome and Introductory remarks

9:45 – 10:15 Opening Address (Department of Foreign Affairs)

10:15 – 10:35 Session 1: Public Participation (CIMC Secretarial)

10:35 – 10:45 TEA BREAK

10:45 – 11:05 Session 2: Freedom of Information (TIPNG)

11:05 – 11:25 Session 3: Fiscal Transparency (Department of Foreign Affairs)

11:25 – 11:45 Session 4: Extractive Resources Transparency (PNGRGC)

11:45 – 12:00 Recap of Sessions

LUNCH BREAK

1:00 – 2:00 Breakout into Cluster Discussion Groups

2:00 – 3:00 Presentations by Discussion Groups

3:00 – 3:20 Summary of Presentation and Way Forward

3:20 – 3:45 Closing Remarks

3:45 – 4:00 Group Photo


List of Workshop Attendees

ORGANISATION ROLE ATTENDEE

Civil Society Groups

1 TIPNG General Manager - Program & Projects Pole Kale

2 TIPNG Research Coordinator Yuambari Haihuie

3 INA Executive Director Paul Barker

4 CIMC Executive Officer Wallis Yakam

5 CELCOR Executive Director Peter Bosip

6 PNG Media Council Chair Alexander Rheeney

7 PNG Resource Governance Coalition Coordinator Martyn Namorong

8 World Vision Representing Country Program Director Brian

9 PNG Civil Society Foundation Susan Setae

10 Water Aid Eileen Tugum

11 Oxfam Program Director Charlotte Kakebeeke

12 Church Partnership Program United Church Uve Nama Rova

Government Departments and Agencies

13 Ombudsman Commission Acting Ombudsman Richard Pagen

14 Dept. of PM & NEC Jeffery Murley

15 Dept. of Treasury Peter Mondoro

16 Dept. of Justice & Attonery Gen Audrey Waine

17 Dept. of Foreign Affairs Acting Secretary William Dihm

18 Dept. of Foreign Affairs Directior Bilateral Division Samson Yabon

19 Dept. of Foreign Affairs Paul Panao

20 Dept. of Foreign Affairs Clare Kliawi

21 Dept. of Foreign Affairs Helen Aitsi

Partners

22 Indonesian Embassy Horisonsah Hasan

23 UN Resident Coordinator's Office Resident Coordinator Roy Trivedy

24 World Bank Gerard Fae

Media

25 Post Courier Newspaper

26 National Newspaper

27 EMTV News

Facilitators

Workshop Moderator Martin Brash

Workshop Transcriber Elsie La'a


A. Welcome and Introductory Remarks

i) Pastor Uve Rova from Keapara United opened the workshop with a word of prayer.

i) Moderator, Martin Brash welcomed all attendances. A special welcome was extended to Acting Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr William Dihm, Acting Ombudsman Commissioner, Mr. Richard Pagen, representatives from CSO, Indonesian Government, the World Bank and the Press. Mr Brash advised that since the first National Workshop the Department of Foreign Affairs, TIPNG and the National Committee had been moving forward for a while and they had some plans in place. The purpose of this workshop was to look at those plans and help the Committee by providing them with a critical evaluation of the commitments we are making under the Opening Government Partnership and how we can push towards transparency and accountability. The Committee had picked up four (4) key commitments that they want us to pursue in the workshop (refer to pages 3 and 4 of Workshop Information Pamphlet annexed to this report). We are to look at these commitments – do you think they are flexible and achievable? In order to reach the commitments, we need to reach some milestone and complete these milestones in order to reach the commitment. The Committee is asking us to look deeply into each of the milestones and tell them, are these right milestones? What’s missing? What are the things we have to do to make us achieve those commitments? We have an important role in bringing PNG into the open Government Partnership. Other countries are striving to make commitments. Most importantly, one of the leadership figures has moved this agenda forward – Mr William Dihm so I will ask him to present his Opening Remarks.

iii) Mr William Dihm Acting Secretary Dept. Of Foreign Affairs – Opening Remarks Mr Dihm acknowledged all the participants and thanked organisers for the invitation to

address the opening remarks for a very important workshop in relation to creating greater access to Government for sustainable development. Mr Dihm read out his written Opening Remarks which was copied and circulated to all attendances and a copy is annexed to this Report together with a Press Statement for immediate release of event date.

B. Session 1: Public Participation – WalisYakam, EO of CIMC Secretariat

As per pages 15 – 22 of the Workshop Pamplet, Ms. Yakam addressed the Workshop on two key commitments addressed by her organisation as follows:

i) Budget roundtable ii) Voice mechanism for informal sector participants.

i) Budget roundtable: Milestone: Create and institutionalize a mechanism for public

involvement in the budget process. Consult with key agencies; Identify a suitable and relevant organisation to take carriage of the mechanism; Conduct roundtable meetings between identified government and civil society stakeholders; Develop citizens budget priorities; Treasury & Planning to make available the budget documents through their websites straight after budget lock up and presentation in Parliament.


The “Voice mechanism for the informal economy is to provide an opportunity to enhance

representation of interest groups involved in or affected by the informal economy in the decision making process of government. This will ensure that the informal economy is recognised and provided a space to thrive alongside the formal economy. The establishment of the Voice Mechanism under the OGP Commitment on Public Participation will empower informal economy participants by providing an avenue to raise their concerns and directly influence decision making processes of the Government. We thought that at the moment civil society does not really have a key role to play using the OGP platform that is provided for civil society to have a say in the public forum. Because public participation is for Government setting platforms for civil societies and citizens to have a voice and come to participate meaningfully forward and have a say in policy development and implementation. So we have to come forward to work together to set up a public platform in terms of having a say in the budget process is important.

With regard to the second commitment, as you know NCD and in some of the major parts of

the country we have the informal sector and informal sector is petty crime are and that sort of thing but when you really see it various studies have indicated that over 70% of our citizens are engaged in informal sector whether in rural or urban areas. When you see in terms of policy and commitment by Government there is no room for informal sector participants so we thought that having a specific voice or some kind of process for them to raise their voices would be a way forward to establish a relationships with councils and authorities, informal sector to reach that census. With public participation people in the rural areas might have some very smart ideas so that’s where we have been concentrating on.

Questions and Remarks were made on the subject by participants as follows: Charlotte (Oxfam); Just to say that in terms of reading information and reaching people in the

rural areas is a real concern for all of us. CIFC also have annual public forums and we try to capitalise what is already there rather than creating new platforms. It’s already in our plans to capitalise on mechanisms we already have.

Eileen Tugum (WaterAid):Talking about participation in budget. My question is whether there is

a report on participation and funding. Our people are not participating in budget. We talk about budget but I’m wondering if there is a way where citizens have a say in what happens. ANSWER: What we have selected in budget run we try to promote budget tracking problem in the district and that captures target audience like community leaders, church leaders, women leaders but basically providing information where they understand the budget. What is DSIP - we go to districts and provide that information. That is ongoing and we started in 2010 and then we have a civil society initiative that works with government – we are currently working with provincial government to implement that program. Great in terms of budget – the gap we see is we have a process and structure in place but we are not working on it. I wonder if it’s possible through this workshop. We can be monitoring budgets and all that but its to be done with the Dept of LLG and we start with involving them in development and planning and engaging them in the budget.

Acting Ombudsman, Richard Pagen Part of this actual presentation is the budget. Budget

preparation normally starts from the ward level and that’s why the spirit of organic law takes over. Why have they taken the provincial government system out to - it has to be started at the work level. What is the work of the ward councillor, a lot of the ward members don’t understand?


What we normally do is we go out and inform them that their work is 1) is to maintain a register at their work level – what is the population at ward level so that 1 to assist electoral commission to maintain a register. 2nd is have a community development plan – that plan is to go to provincial assembly and that identifies what needs to be done and that goes to provincial budgetary committee and then it goes to the provincial assembly and from provincial assembly the governor gives it to the Department of Rural Development - this is a very important department. If they are not involved in that area then .ward members do not receive direct funding. That’s more or less what we should look at. The provincial affairs has a core role to play so the needs of people are met at community level and not Provincial Government or Treasury.

Alexander Rheeney – Media Council: it would be good to have certain house rules in case of

discussion during the day. So if you got some questions let us know and we will publish it so we have an accurate report at the end of the day. In terms of assessment of different forums that CIFC have, have you been able to get feedback in terms of empowering Papua New Guineans to ensure government has very important information? ANSWER: In these forums the thing that we see is when you see it like our acting ombudsman has mentioned, that is what’s in the system? In reality it’s not happening and the 89 districts and LLGs, half of them don’t have any planning That’s the reality, we have no information, there is no communication in terms of the system so as a result there are lots of gaps and disconnections and the CIMC regional and national forum process try to circulate that sort of information. The immediate impact we have is as one of the senior statesmen mentioned – during my life in parliament we have more debate here in this forum then what we do in cabinet. Out of those policies, some of them don’t read it so CMC tries to bring that information to people who are out of reach. The outcomes are beyond our control, we provide information and it’s within their hands. You can see most information on what we do on our website.

Paul Barker - INA - Raised a number of key issues there which is that company during national

and local level and that is something that should be highlighted in forums. I attended a meeting recently in Washington with number of other countries on the issue of physical transparency and obviously what the people are interested in is what is included in services in the LLG. We need to get the engagement and public participation at national level. But most people are interested in local level. Government can play a certain part in national and district levels in getting material out that public can understand. The Government should be empowering people to do the engagement and civil society has to take the lead in that along with working with government, Working with organisations along with ombudsman and other relevant stakeholders. We are talking about partnerships and government has its pathway and crucial role but it can do functions that civil society can do. To empower them so government provides these information and community has to say what they should do with it. That information is available right through the district level. It can only be done once we have the partnership operating.

Mr Rova – Church Partnership Programme: I just want to give a practical example of what is

here. We have our systems in place but it requires people to make it work. In my own village, we have developed a village plan involving the people from the village, they identify 59 projects even going to the point of buying a helicopter. When they identify those projects, we try to prioritise us and we also work without member. Once of the projects identified was rural electrification and our people wanted solar unit in their houses as we do not have access to PNG Power. They allocated K70,000 under DSIP. For that K70,000 we worked with people, they said we don’t want hurricane, kerosene, coleman, generator, we wanted solar. There was allocation of K120,000 for water project. Through the plan we prioritised so we have water, well water and rain water so we asked the DSIP JPPBC to consider giving us K120,000 for solar and that was


accepted so now you go to Keapara it’s like a little town with solar unit. We have influenced the decision with JDBPP cos we have a plan and Minister just opened new pastors house in our village – contributed K100, We provided acquittal for that money. Minister said you have set an example, tell others. We have a plan for the village. It’s not government plan, its people themselves that set their plan and I am just providing assistance.

Coffee Break for 10 to 15 minutes. C. Session 2: Freedom of Information (TIPNG) Yuambari Haihuie I have been working this particular cluster group and I will be going through this in a 15 minutes

presentation. (Refer pages 9 to 11of Workshop Pamphlet on freedom of information commitments). We are a worldwide movement focused on bringing governance and transparency. Our mission in PNG is to form an education empowerment. The OGP process is working in partnership within the Department of Foreign Affairs. We are the ones sending out invitations to our OGP partners and saying let us set our milestones. Some of these commitments are milestones. This particular plan is for August 2016 and the first action plan. In 2013, we had the first workshop when our Indonesian and Malaysian partners came. We have selected 4 of those and speaking on the freedom of information. We have three components.

i) Legislation on Access to Information; ii) Inter-Agency Communication and Sharing of Information; iii) Mechanism for Storage of Information: Govt open Data Portal

We’ve come up the following commitments, workshop for stakeholders, technical working group,

first draft review of ATI act, finalisation of ATI act, Bill brought to parliament. These are the commitments and milestones we have come up with. Speaking with the constitutional law reform commission who are also part of the committee, he said there has to be letter to the agency sponsoring this. We have to identify which agency. There’s no effective way of working out how they’ve spent the money on that infrastructure there. So that’s the commitment we are trying to look at under agency.

Questions:

Pastor Rova: one of the commissions with NEFC. Information is very important to everyone. I don’t know whether the kind of technology will reach 85% of the population in rural areas - . the people we are targeting? ANSWER: thank you for that question. Mr Rova is a financial member of TIPNG and also member of the Church Partnership Programme. When a piece of document comes into the office, what happens to that piece of paper. That can also be under the freedom of information. We are looking at how to collect that date, which information is looked as at relevant document, is it just accessible to office? Those information documents needs to be looked at;

Alexander Rheeney: Medical Council President. I welcome this initiative and I think the government should be commended for going down this far. From the media, accessibility to government information is important. We are looking critically at how we are breaking down


government information to basics so whole of PNG can be able to understand. Reaching the unbreakable, reaching the uninformed - that’s where one of our biggest challenges is. In terms of reaching the OGP concept creating online contacts for journalists is one of our four biggest challenges on media and data interpretation, data journalism. Where journalists are understanding government data. In order for us to break down this information, journalists need to know how to break down government data. ANSWER: I’m glad you are here This is the first national action plan. In the second action plan we can go out and look at the nitty gritty. That’s the kind of freedom of information we want to look at. It’s not just the media, its everyone. This data again should be our bread and butter for justifying what we are doing. ....

Chairperson PNG CSOs – Susan Sete: Thank you What stage do you have for involving the informal sector?

Gerard – transport Getting access to data is very difficult in PNG. How do you get it into the

system to access information because data is being commercialised as well. What are the basic ways of getting into these areas of accessing that information? I think other government agencies like national planning, you can go in and access acts. How do you manage to access all these information? Are you on the same platform? How far has it gone down to bringing all these information? ANSWER: Commitment of government in the OGP Partnership. We need to set up a structure that the government, local govt, auditingetc are supposed to support each other. There are data sets already out there in all respective agencies or departments. I can go and see how many mining tenements are there, how many spare blocks pieces of land? These are things that only COES need to do. How can citizens access these documents? That is the key question we are here to work out.

D. Session 3: Fiscal Transparency (Department of Foreign Affairs) PAUL PANAO The Foreign Affairs Minister has committed to PNG joining the OGP so Mr Yabon was with him

at that time so he has taken aboard the OGP within PNG. I’d like to acknowledge Treasury Department. We’ve been working on the great privilege to working with Department of Treasury. This workshop is a very good forum to get ideas from a wider community when finalising the National Action Plan. In fiscal transparency there is a huge terrain to cover. Since this is our first national action plan we try not to bite off more than we can chew. (Refer pages 23 to 25 of the Workshop Pamphlet). Our commitment is the Provision of accurate, timely and accessible fiscal data. We have identified the leading agencies in Government. The government department has to submit to Dept of Finance which then needs to get approval from Attorney General. It’s quite a long process. It has to be changed into a language that PNGs understand and give them the power to know about their money. It is one of those principles that the government has to follow in OGP. On page 25 there are 10 milestones:

Milestone 1: Providing in-year reports on the Treasury website; Milestone 2: Audit of Public Accounts Milestone 3: Fully operationalize & rollout IFMS to all Govt bodies to sub-national govts Milestone 4: Develop a citizens budget; Milestone 5: Parliamentary oversight; Milestone 6: CSO’s raise public awareness;


Milestone 7: CSO’s assist public awareness & demand data & encourage practical use at all levels Milestone 8: CSOs undertaken & support communities in undertaking budget tracking

Milestone 9: CSOs work with & also independently of govt agencies & watchdogs; Milestone 10: CSO’s help design/develop suitable feedback on accountability and public

standards The other thing about national action plan on fiscal transparency in the milestones we have is to

get the agencies take ownership of these milestones so we can actually see who is doing what and what they are going to do so we can track our programs. Some of these milestones can be broken up even further to more feasible milestones. As we accomplish those milestones it will lead us to accurate timing.

Questions: Brian - World Vision in PNG. I am very pleased to see that transparency is getting such a high

priority here. That is a central feature on how to increase all levels with transparency with government. My questions relates to what degree has there been in government participation, what various levels of political program? What have they to lose in their participation? In some ways civil society and government can collaborate to address that. What are the thoughts levels of government have to increase this sort of transparency? ANSWER: The comment will be a point for group discussion.

------ Department of Treasury – We are aware of the importance of providing information and we

are over time trying to provide these. Different departments have their own. In treasury we release information as we are by law allowed to do that under the Auditor General’s Act. In that act it requires us to process some very important information on budget. In the event that budget is passed we are required by the law to provide that information. When the actual budget is passed, we are required to provide the budget to the media. It’s all required under that act. However, the only problem with that act is it is not published on time. This relates to the freedom of information act, how do you make sure those reports from the department on time? Most of the information in terms of audit information from auditor general is not been updated. Treasury can update on a website but it needs to be cross referenced by auditor general. ..

Paul Barker. Strong points there by Peter. Have a little example. Going to the physical

transparency and some of the background work been done on this through budget index process and budget survey we’ve been undertaking 2 years or so. Main feature in that is access to accurate and timely budget and audit information and rules of engagement and holding government responsible. It’s a first stage but a prerequisite. Some of us including Emily [Taule, TIPNG] and myself have been involved in the grand reform process with NRI and other bodies to open up the transparency of the land management system. We know it’s one of the areas of some of the biggest corruption in PNG. Open access to data base on line. The Lands Department go and issue a contract, doesn’t go through proper public process. It started off as a K3 million contract and its now K30 million plus and we still don’t have data to this and I don’t know whether treasury has more success in finding out. We don’t have the information, we don’t have anyone accountable on the expenditure so it goes back again to active public demand for that information and obviously a lot of people want that information. That’s just a little example and we need transparency, the public needs it.

Mr Samson Yabon Fiscal transparency in PNG is also a challenge been looked at with private and government

sector. One of the key challenges that we have is discussion going on physical transparencies.


How do we convince the government sector to have ownership of the milestones and that is a critical achiever for fiscal transparency. How many enhanced capacity at the local level and national level. Our challenge is we still carrying onto additional rules of relation and here we looking at traditional roles. We are talking about decentralisation, empowering a citizen at local level. How do we convince people that a board member has to be duly checked in an election process? Do we allow traditional laws to prevail and how do we bridge that gap of modern bureaucracy and same time maintain a traditional form. Extractive industries - all these are tied in together so leadership at local level is important too. So the question of how do government sectors or institutions respond to open budgeting PNG needs alot of initiative – how we can go about on taking ownership of the key milestones on transparency.

E. Session 4: Extractive Resources Transparency (PNGRGC) Martyn Namarong – Co-ordinator of PNGRGC (Refer pages 26 to 29) - Commitment 5 – To have Extractive Sector Transparency and

Governance through policy and law. Milestones:

Develop the PNG EITI policy

Develop the PNG EITI legislation We need to formulate the policy and legislation and some work has been done. The National

Secretary needs to build his capacity in order for alot of these to be implemented. In relation to question on policy and legislation, we need to develop the policy first then look at legislation. Given that our timeframe is end of next year it’s possible that policy is achievable. In terms of OGP commitment for legislation it will be around end of 2018. We haven’t really got any resistance from other stakeholders so it seems we are good to go. It’s interesting that you look at the timetable that EITI have already committed beginning of July. Nice to see some things are happening and lesson from EITI is something for others to see.

Paul Barker: Don’t get into this idea that everything has 2 years to complete. Things don’t all

have to go through that process. The normal way for legislation is the sponsoring agency puts together the drafting instructions, does the consultation with relevant agencies, and goes to legislative counsel to prepare legislation. So long as legislative council is not completely snowed under and if it’s a priority it can be done faster than that. If it’s something that doesn’t need nationwide consultation cos it gets wide endorsement, then it should operate under a lighter program. ANSWER: We had an interesting push forward and we do not have to wait for national secretariat. It relates to what Paul said it’s just about whether you really want what you striving for and you ready to work hard to get it done.

LUNCH BREAK -12:15 Recommenced at 1:30pm

F. Recap of Sessions – Martin Brash

A/Secretary of Foreign Affairs opening remarks - firstly on sustainable development. He outlined the OGP and referenced 70 countries participating in it including our neighbours Philippines and Indonesia. On question of PNG’s commitment as A/Secretary reiterated the support for OGP that’s around at the moment and he made reference to the history of it


making reference to the Minister for Foreign Affairs attending a workshop oversea where he indicated PNG participating in it which resulted in this draft action plan we have before you and that is requirement for countries that join OGP. So this workshop and its importance in reviewing the work that has been done –4 commitments out of a possible 7 and he urged us to focus on the commitments and milestones. He made reference to opportunity that OGP brings about - it actually creates a platform for policy leadership of governance in the region.

Wallis Yakam presented on the first set of commitments on public participation. In her lead up she referenced the treasury and national planning could lead us in this particular commitment. She listed about her milestones about costing CSO meetings, facilitating development of top 3 priorities, creating round table dialogue, undertaking national and regional consultations, finalising a policy, hosting a budget form for treasury to inform civil society about budget and getting their input. On commitment 2 she indicated that was a voice mechanism for informal sector participants with interest groups in informal sector economy representing 70% of the informal sector. The milestone she focused on CLRC review of informal act, voicing mechanisms sub-committee to allow informal voice and organising a workshop to present an action plan. Those are described more clearly in the document. Important to note key points for upcoming discussion. Reference was made to provincial and district input and ownership, participation of women, role of press, more citizen input to planning not just input at budget stage, capacity – one of the issues about helping citizens to ask the right questions, building partnerships in the key public participation.

On Freedom of information, Yuambari from TIPNG – informing and empowering people around transparency and accountability; TIPNG co-chair of OGP Steering Committee; current national plans deals with 4 commitments. Made general reference before he got to his commitments that freedom of information guaranteed in the Constitution. He thinks commitment 1is access to inform legislation. His milestones – an official letter to endorse commencement, workshop for stakeholders, technical working group, first draft ATI, finalisation of Act and presentation to Parliament. Commitment 2 was integrated government information system which was an IGIS platform to share and access information. Commitment 3 was PNG open data portal which was more or less of having a website accessible to people. The milestone was review all available public datasets, collection, website registration data uploading and data access. Comments and discussions from floor – timing is tight, need to start on ATI legislation now if we are to produce it by 2018; will technology reach the rural populations, will they understand it. Data interpretation, the time and resources – are these been made available by government was a questions by UN. The milestones need to take into account of key events. He also took the chance to share with us his experience from UK when he made mention of go live dates. And by go live dates he said rather than build everything to the end, he says we should take stage to go line until we reach the end. Strategy for CS involvement really helps with freedom of information and the World Bank says data is been commercial.

On fiscal transparency we heard from Paul Panao of Depart of Foreign affairs. He talked about lack of submission of timely finance reports, information knot a=know, audit cannot be completed but the said DFA and CSOs and treasury are already working together on this. Commitment 1 in the action plan is provision of accurate, timely and accessible fiscal data. Milestones are in year reports on treasury website; audit of pubic accounts; operationalise and roll out IFMS; develop a citizen’s budget; raise public awareness and demand budget data, assist public literacy, support citizens with social auditing etc. Discussion started from floor we heard that fiscal transparency is a central and essential feature that is included as a


commitment; following the money, what do key political actors gain from this. Paul Barker spoke of the work they are doing on the open budget index. He gave us a very real example where he tried to work on that in lands department resulted in a contract for K30 million and the practical hands on experience to make sure things work. Director Foreign affairs brought up issue of capacity enhancement and custom norms something’s working against formal system and we need leadership at that level to bridge the gap and we need to be started.

Extractive Resources transparency, Martyn Namarong, PNGRGC. Made an important point that EITI currently hangs on NEC decision where we need to create the enabling platform to solidify the EITI mission. Therefore commitment 1 was to develop the PNG EITI policy. The milestones – Multi stakeholder group to create opening for this – bit like open government. Multi-stakeholder groups to create the opening for this process and in fact they have done this and have improved on this area and have gone ahead to recruit a consultant towards and that person will do the discussion paper and policy and that will go into a draft policy and if that goes well the policy will be lodged. Once that’s done, his advice was for most of us working in policy area, with the policy in place for most of you working/ The difference is that you produce a draft statement. When we have a brief discussion about it, we hear that the milestones already moving. In fact if the. Department gets behind it and drives it, it will certainly be quicker.

7. Presentation By discussion Groups

a) Group 1 – Public Participation & Freedom of Information Milestones Feedback

Public Participation Commitment 1: Open Budget Roundtable - For actions, who takes charge? - How frequent are meetings for consultation? - Keep OGP Grand Challenges in mind - Focused on Government but active citizenship milestones needed in this commitment - Who is represented in citizen participation? - Training of Civil Society participants needed - Need for gender equity/representation in budget roundtable - Tracking and reporting of milestones? - Ongoing assessment of performance needed Public Participation Commitment 2: Voice Mechanism - Review of relevant Act by CLRC must be included as a milestone - Add milestone of launch of the NAP derived from policy - National forum on informal sector as milestone - Stocktake of capacity in pilot authorities - Identify specific responsible agencies for each milestone - Clarity required in commitment that it is urban-focused - Milestones can link with Government human rights commitments - Vendors can have associations on issues - Need for gender equity/representation - Milestones performance needs to be monitored Freedom of Information Commitment 1: Access to Information Legislation


- The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Legislation will be read at November seating of Parliament. There is a subordinate clause in legislation that will implement aspects of access to information.

- Gazetting needs to be added to list of milestones - National Anti-Corruption Task Force needs to added as a key agency - First legislative counsel and State Solicitor need to issue a certificate of necessity - Give live dates for all milestones - Look at extent of classification of sensitive documents - Link with Fiscal Transparency cluster commitment through public procurement and

the Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS) Draft Policy Freedom of Information Commitment 2: Integrated Government Information System - measure uploading of information as a metric of success - development of reporting templates required - performance system of uploading duty Freedom of Information Commitment 3: Open Data Portal - Identify pilot agencies - feedback from users (focus group) - look at ICT penetration in PNG - questionnaire to see reach of system - prioritise key actors and provide training and commitment for dissemination - Simplify language for understanding by users as well as provide graphics - Do a risk analysis on information being used incorrectly

b) Group 2 – Fiscal Transparency & Extractives Transparency Milestones Feedback

Fiscal Transparency Commitment 1 Milestones 1, 2 & 3

- Suggest dates for consideration by relevant agencies (Department of Treasury and Department of Finance)

Milestone 3 - Realistic Timeline by the Department of Treasury and Finance Milestone 4 - Participatory Budget at local level - Links with Public Participation Commitment - Budget roundtable Milestone 5

- Government make an effort to engage with the Parliament and Parliamentary Committee Milestone 9 & 10 - To be merged

8. Closing Remarks


Martin Brash wrapped up and thanked the group. Advised the group that a report will be following with the next draft of OGP national action plan from this workshop and other consultation. On group work done, some of the additional comments made now added.

Next Steps:

Further consultation on the draft action plan to build ownership in agencies and set realistic timeframes as suggested for milestones;

The drafts of the OGP National Action plan will ensure consistent use of the template (commitment 1 in the draft is the guide to follow and the application of responsible agencies and persons against each milestone.

Some effort still need to link commitments, prioritise and order them.


ANNEX 1 – Opening Remarks by Dept. Foreign Affairs Acting Secretary Mr. William Dihm

OPENING REMARKS FOR THE 2ND NATIONAL OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP

(OGP) WORKSHOP BY MR. WILLIAM DIHM, ACTING SECRETARY

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2016, 9:45 AM, LAMANA HOTEL, WAIGANI

Officials of government departments and agencies, members of civil society

organizations, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I stand here this morning to deliver the opening

remarks to mark this significant occasion of the 2nd Papua New Guinea National

Workshop on Open Government Partnership.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative and as it is for

many other countries, is very important and relevant to Papua New Guinea

(PNG) and its institutions, as it aims to secure concrete commitments from

governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and

harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

The OGP initiative was formally launched on 20 September, 2011 on the margins

of the 66th United Nations General Assembly, when the 8 founding governments;

Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United

Kingdom, and the United States; endorsed the Open Government Declaration,

and announced their National Action Plans.

Since then, the OGP has welcomed the commitment of 62 additional

governments to join the Partnership. In total, 70 OGP participating countries have

made over 2,250 commitments to make their governments more open,

accountable, and responsive to its citizens.

In 2014, Honourable Rimbink Pato, Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea

attended the 3rd Open Government Partnership Asia-Pacific Regional

Conference in Bali, Indonesia where he initially expressed in his official statement

Papua New Guinea’s intention of joining the OGP. After Cabinet’s endorsement

and subsequent communications exchanged with the OGP Secretariat in

Washington D.C., Papua New Guinea was announced as the 67th member to

join the OGP initiative on the occasion of the Annual OGP Conference in Mexico

City, on 29th October 2015.


As you may be aware, Papua New Guinea since becoming a member of the

OGP, must now deliver to the OGP Secretariat a National Action Plan (NAP)

developed with public consultation, and commit to independent reporting on its

implementation and progress going forward.

In PNG’s NAP, 4 out of the 7 OGP clusters of commitment will be reflected. They

are Extractive Resources Transparency, Fiscal Transparency, Freedom of

Information, and Public Participation.

At this juncture, I wish to congratulate the PNG OGP Steering Committee for their

tireless efforts to put together PNG’s first NAP which will be open for comments,

feedback and views from the participants of this workshop today.

In addition, I wish to mention that the aforementioned clusters of commitment

are very much of significant relevance to strengthening PNG’s governance

institutions and systems, to enable the creation of new and strengthening of

existing mechanisms for the effective delivery of goods and services to our

citizens.

Furthermore, given PNG’s increasing regional profile and leadership role as an

emerging regional middle power, this enables PNG to be an active partner to

the OGP initiative in demonstrating policy leadership on governance issues in the

region.

In Honourable Rimbink Pato’s capacity as Foreign Minister and Minister

responsible for OGP issues since PNG became a member in 2015, I wish to assure

the OGP Steering Committee and participants of this workshop that after this

workshop, Minister Pato will sponsor the National Action Plan which will be

consolidated and submitted to the National Executive Council through an NEC

Policy Submission for Cabinet’s endorsement. This will then be submitted to the

OGP Secretariat in Washington by the end of August, 2016.

In closing, I am confident that this workshop will be a fruitful and constructive one

to further enhancing PNG’s National Action Plan and overall strengthening of

PNG’s governance institutions and mechanisms.

I wish to encourage you all to engage in active interaction and dialogue, and

look forward to submitting the National Action Plan for Cabinet’s endorsement.

-ENDS-

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