Mount Hagen city without mayor

By Neville Togarewa

Mount Hagen does not have a lord mayor and political infighting and lack of funds are affecting the provision of essential municipal services to the ratepayers and 150,000 city residents, according to former city manager Pious Pim.

“Mt Hagen, the hub of the Highlands region and PNG’s third largest city, is in crisis. It does not have a political head and its administration is under-funded and not functioning effectively,” Mr Pim said over the weekend.

“The city fathers and management team are not doing their jobs, denying ratepayers and residents basic services and allowing the city to go to the dogs,” he said. “At this time of development, especially with the multi-billion kina LNG project, there should be serious planning, reconstruction and development spear headed by a visionary leader, in this case a lord mayor,” Mr Pim said.

“The Minister for Inter-Government Relations (Job Pomat) should step in and resolve the issue instead of allowing it to stagger on for months, crippling basic services to rate payers,” he said. Mr Pim said at present Western Highlands Governor Tom Olga’s ambitious K1.4 billion Mt Hagen Kona Kai project “seems to be over-riding the powers of Mt Hagen Urban LLG, which is the third level government in the city”.

“Someone in the Mt Hagen ULLG should take charge of the political leadership in the city and draw the line to show to ratepayers and residents where the buck stops,” he said. “Can the Minister for Inter-Government Relations use his powers in the Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local Level Governments and clean up the mess once and for all,” Mr Pim said.