Waste

Ineptitude And

Attacks on W & H Department

Prom Our Own Correspondent LAE, Dec .4.

CHE extravagantly-staffed, highly paid and expensive Papua-New Guinea branch of the Depart lent of Works has been much riticised in 1951; and the clamour gainst this organisation is not issening.

The correspondent of a leading newspaper recently lid:— “This body of civilians is lam ooned throughout New Guinea as {forks & Jerks’, and servicemen up lere scorn the Department as the :me of waste, idleness and leptitude. Even W & H employees imitted to me that their Depart lent is a joke.”

During the first session of the bw Legislative Council, Mr. Don. arrett (elected member) opened an :tack, thus:— “For the past five years, in both erritories, we have been burdened ith an organisation known as forks & Housing. It was installed sre at the wish of the Common ealth Government, as it was felt lat the amount of reconstruction ork in the Territory was too vast i be adequately handled by the d Department of Public Works.

“We have seen an influx of many undreds of employees, and we have ien several of our own territorial dministration officers absorbed, any of them reluctantly, by it. ut what we have not seen is works id housing,”

Not all the' W & H officials and orkmen were incompetent said Mr. arrett —in fact, large numbers were rst-class men, interested in their bs. But they were hamstrung by id tape, incompetence and regula rs. If the Territory was to get sal benefit from the huge sums Jing spent under the heading of iblic works, a general survey and ide reforms were necessary, im ediately.