Indigenous Commercial Ambitions and Decentralisation in Papua New Guinea: The Missing Driver of Reform

This Discussion Paper argues that the initial mid1970s establishment of provincial governments as forms of decentralised authority has been misunderstood. Anthony Regan, to cite one instance, has argued that there was intended to be ‘a radical redistribution of power, requiring the creation of new centres of power able to act as a counterbalance to the central government as well as operate as new arenas for resolution of local tensions and disputes’ (1992:9). Instead, here it is argued that the principal determinant of the constitutional reforms was the continuing drive by indigenes to open up space in the postcolonial state so that their hold on political power could be transformed into commercial opportunities. The ambitions and activities of sections of the indigenous bourgeoisie and would-be bourgeois were most important. One major consequence of the misunderstanding is that subsequent changes, including the 1995 and 2015 Organic Law reforms, continue to be examined primarily in terms of service delivery, successes and failures, and capacity development (Haley and Wiltshire 2015). This limited focus continues to appear in descriptions of later moves to further decentralisation. These accounts produce little more than a breakdown of budgetary allocations and attempts to pinpoint political beneficiaries, including members of parliament (Wiltshire 2014), while official aid concentrates on what is termed capacity development (DFAT 2011). Accordingly, a ‘shopping-list’ of various explanations for the ‘unsatisfactory’ service delivery informs official policy prescriptions. To cite just one instance of this direction, a 2011 ‘Project Design Document’ lists the following reasons for ‘unsatisfactory’ service delivery: (S)ector specific policy and operational challenges, cross-cutting issues related to weaknesses in public administration and governance such as public financial management, policy coordination and coherence, and human resources management, issues to do with politics, power and leadership, funding, as well as logistical and technical issues. The GoPNG [Government of Papua New Guinea], together with development partner assistance, has been working to address these multiple constraints to service delivery. (DFAT 2011:5)