Papua New Guinea Action Plan Review 2022-2024

This product consists of an IRM review of the Papua New Guinea 2022-2024 action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen.... The action plan comprises 16 commitments that the IRM has filtered and clustered into 8 (3 clusters and 5 commitments assessed individually). This review emphasizes its analysis on the strength of the action plan to contribute to implementation and results. For the commitment-by-commitment data, see Annex 1. For details regarding the methodology and indicators used by the IRM for this Action Plan Review, see Section III.

Overview of the 2022-2024 Action Plan

 Following improved but limited co-creation with civic groups, the action plan includes promising commitments on access to information legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... and fiscal transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More. Effective implementation needs certain capacity resourcing, funding, and monitoring of progress.

Papua New Guinea joined OGP in 2015. This report evaluates the design of its second action plan, which has 16 commitments. The action plan carries forward all clusters of commitments from the first plan, as well as introducing nine new commitments. For clarity of analysis, this report clusters commitments on fiscal transparency (5 and 9-12), digital government (7, 8, and 16), and extractive resources transparency (13-15). The cluster on fiscal transparency and the commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... on access to information have substantial potential for results, indicating greater ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... than the previous action plan.

The plan includes the new policy areas of youth participation and digital identity within the National Identity Document (NID) project. It introduces new digital government and budget expenditure reporting legislation. It continues commitments on fiscal transparency, adding the dimension of subnational government. It also continues commitments on access to information legislation, extractive resources transparency, and government engagement with the informal sector and civil society.

Although Papua New Guinea’s process for developing the action plan facilitated positive engagement, it did not meet the minimum requirements of the OGP Participation & Co-Creation Standards. Basic rules on the multi-stakeholder forum were not publicly available; the website and repository had not yet been published; and stakeholder contributions were not documented or provided with reasoned response prior to the action plan’s publication. Under the previous action plan, Papua New Guinea was also found to be acting contrary to OGP process,^[1] having not published a repositoryAccess to relevant information is essential for enabling participation and ensuring accountability throughout the OGP process. An OGP repository is an online centralized website, webpage, platform or ... in line with IRM guidance.

The process saw improvements compared to the previous action plan cycle, in terms of the level of CSO participation. However, consultation was limited due to a tight timeline and COVID-19 restrictions on travel. In September 2021, the Department of National Planning and Monitoring and Transparency International PNG held the Co-Creation and Good Governance conference to gather commitment recommendations from around 100 diverse participants from government, civil society, NGOs, the private sector, and development partners.^[2] Following the conference, some CSOs emailed further input on commitments. The Department of National Planning and Monitoring did not provide reasoned response to public input during the co-creation period, but a summary of this input was later published in July 2022.[3] A consultant presented a draft action plan to a Drafting Committee of four government agencies and six civil society groups.^[4] The committee’s role was to validate the draft and identify an implementing agency for each commitment. Civil society drafters reported short notice of committee meetings and expressed concern that the final set of commitments was not collaboratively co-created. This action plan saw support from some key government agencies, but other agencies were not consulted initially and had already finalized their annual workplans and budgets prior to the action plan.^[5] CSOs were invited to join the implementation of commitments during a quarterly CSO update meeting.[6]

The action plan includes promising commitments on access to information and fiscal transparency. Commitment 6 continues work on foundational legislation on access to government-held information. The cluster on fiscal transparency (Commitments 5 and 9-12) continues work to improve the management, accessibility, and auditing of national public funds, including at the provincial level. This cluster could improve budget design and public trust in government finances. If successfully implemented, these promising commitments could raise Papua New Guinea’s core OGP eligibility score in the areas of access to information and fiscal transparency. This would represent critical progress, as Papua New Guinea was placed under procedural review in 2020 for failing to meet the OGP Core Eligibility Criteria for two consecutive years.^[7]

The remaining commitments carry out work to increase public participation in decision-making by youth and civil society, improve dialogue with the informal economy, establish a national e-government portal, and progress the National Identity Document roll-out. Legislation will also be drafted to enhance the delivery of online public services and to establish the Extractive IndustriesApplying open government values of transparency, participation, and accountability to extractive industries can decrease corruption, safeguard community interests and needs, and support environmental ... Transparency Initiative (EITI) Commission and enhance reporting from the private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat.... An e-government policy will be developed to allow more direct and convenient citizen access to government. While each commitment has activities that can be monitored, they continue existing work programs or anticipate modest results.

Although the action plan addresses critical policy areas, it falls short on addressing some key anti-corruption measures[8] suggested during the co-creation process. The action plan did not incorporate proposed commitments on a complaints mechanism, electoral integrity, an online tender process for public procurement, or financial accountability of Services Improvement Programs (SIP).[9] According to the 2021 Global Corruption Barometer Pacific, 96 percent of respondents saw corruption in government as a big problem in Papua New Guinea.[10] Internationally, the Corruption Perception Index ranked Papua New Guinea 124 of 180 countries.[11]

Effective implementation of commitments relies on certain capacity resourcing, funding, and monitoring of progress. Immediate approval of the OGP Secretariat’s request for funds to support national planning can address unclear government resourcing and funding. Delays in implementation may arise in relation to the 2022 election, mitigated by ministers retaining their portfolios until there are clear election results. Once the election results are confirmed and the new government installed, the responsible ministers and key civic groups could come together to confirm the action plan program and promote the initiatives widely using traditional and social media. Implementation requires oversight from a multi-stakeholder forumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple..., and renewed high-level political engagement from the Department of National Planning and Monitoring. The process would also benefit from establishing a participation code of practice with principles and guidelines for the multi-stakeholder forum and joint participation in implementing the action plan. While commitments have verifiable tasks, milestones to monitor and report publicly on their implementation could strengthen later results. It would be beneficial to establish regular processes for sharing information on implementation and gathering feedback from stakeholders in Port Moresby and in the provinces, at least twice a year through meetings and progress reports on the national OGP website.

Promising Commitments in Papua New Guinea’s 2022-2024 Action Plan

The following review looks at the six commitments (one individual commitment and one cluster of five commitments) that the IRM identified as having the potential to realize the most promising results, and offers a brief summary and concise recommendations on the remaining ten commitments. Promising commitments address a policy area that is important to stakeholders or the national context. They must be verifiable, have a relevant open government lens, and have modest or substantial potential for results. This review also provides an analysis of challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to contribute to the learning and implementation process of this action plan.

For clarity of analysis, the IRM has filtered and clustered the action plan’s six clusters of sixteen commitments into three clusters and five commitments assessed individually, to align with international open government policy areas. Like the action plan, this report clusters Commitments 13-15 on extractives resources transparency. It also reflects the action plan’s clustering of Commitments 9-12 on fiscal transparency, and adds Commitment 5 on the audit report, as this commitment contributes to the cluster’s objective. Finally, the report clusters Commitments 7 and 8 on the digital government legislation and portal with Commitment 16 on the National Identity Project, as digital identity is integrally linked to digital government reform. Unlike the action plan, this report does not cluster Commitments 1-4, given the distinct policy aims of each commitment.

Table 1. Promising commitments

[1] Open Government Partnership, Procedural Review, July 2022, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/procedural-review/.

[2] Facebook, Papua New Guinea Open Government Partnership Co-Creation and Good Governance Conference invitation, September 2021, https://www.facebook.com/pngnatplan/videos/1300178510438609/; Transparency International PNG, Papua New Guinea Open Government Partnership Co-creation And Good Governance Conference Outcome Report, https://www.ogp.gov.pg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/OGP-National-Conference-Document_TIPNG-transcribed-6.pdf.

[3] PNG OGP National Action Plan (2021-2023) Co-creation Workshop, https://www.ogp.gov.pg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/OGP-Website-Reasoned-Response-220622-1.pdf.

[4] CIMC, INA, TIPNG, CELCOR, OXFAM, and Bread for the World, interviews by the IRM.

[5] Information provided to the IRM local researcher by CELCOR, 2 June 2022, and CIMC, 26 May 2022.

[6] Barbra Ruin (Transparency International PNG), correspondence with the IRM, 12 August 2022.

[7] Sanjay Pradhan (OGP), eligibility update letter to Rainbo Paita (Minister of Nat’l Planning and Monitoring for Papua New Guinea), 12 July 2021, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Papua-New-Guinea_Eligibility-Update-Letter_20210712.pdf.

[8] Dirk Wagener, UN Regional Coordinator, Ending corruption is key to increasing prosperity, 9 December 2021, https://papuanewguinea.un.org/en/164185-ending-corruption-key-increasing-prosperity#:~:text=Article%2051%20of%20Papua%20New,more%20information%20to%20the%20public; Corruption and money laundering in the Pacific: intertwined challenges and interlinked responses, May 2022, https://www.transparency.org.nz/blog/corruption-and-money-laundering-across-the-pacific ; Transparency International NZ, Civil society organisations call on Pacific Island Forum leaders to strengthen anti-corruption efforts, 12 July 2022, https://www.transparency.org.nz/blog/civil-society-organisations-call-on-pacific-island-forum-leaders-to-strengthen-anti-corruption-efforts; The Guardian, PNG Prime Minister denies connection to suitcase full of cash found as voting starts, 6 July 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/06/png-prime-minister-denies-connection-to-suitcase-full-of-cash-found-as-voting-starts. 

[9] PNG OGP National Action Plan (2021-2023) Co-creation Workshop, https://www.ogp.gov.pg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/OGP-Website-Reasoned-Response-220622-1.pdf.

[10] Global Corruption Barometer Pacific, November 2021, https://www.transparency.org/en/gcb/pacific/pacific-2021/results/png; World Bank Group, CPIA value rating, https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/papua-new-guinea/indicator/IQ.CPA.TRAN.XQ.

[11] Transparency International, Papua New Guinea, Corruption Perceptions Index 2021, https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/papua-new-guinea.