THE second phase of the construction of the Baiyer district court precinct in Western Highlands is set to take place at the end of the month.
The instruments for the construction were signed by the contractor, Piripu Limited, the provincial procurement committee and the chief magistrate from the National Magisterial Services on Monday in Mt Hagen.
Chris Pittz signed on behalf of Piripu Limited, while Chief Magistrate Mark Pupaka signed for the Magisterial Services, and provincial administrator Joseph Mangbil signed for the provincial procurement committee.
Through the decentralisation arrangement, the Western Highlands government has allocated K1 million to the construction – K500,000 to the first phase and K500,000 for the second phase.
The signing of the contract for the second phase was witnessed by Governor Wai Rapa, National Judicial Services secretary Nichodemus Mosoro, Mt Hagen resident national court judge Justice Lawrence Kangwia, and other senior officers from the Magisterial Services, the police, Dei administration and the provincial government.
Rapa witnessed the signing ceremony.
He said establishing the Baiyer National Court House was an achievement and continued the decentralisation of the judiciary services to the district.
He said a K500,000 was remitted for the first phase, and the second K500,000 for the second phase would be allocated once funds draw down processes were cleared by Finance Department.
Rapa said supporting the court systems and the police is a priority programme captured at both the provincial and the national governments.
“We are looking forward to partnering through the same programme for the other three districts (Dei, Tambul-Nebilyer and Hagen Central) in the future,” he said.
Chief Magistrate Mark Pupaka thanked Rapa for the partnership saying the National Judiciary Services was looking forward to moving into Dei.
“We are ready to move to make things functional in Baiyer,” he said.
“We have been registering cases in Mt Hagen for a while.”
Pupaka said to establish similar court houses in the other districts depended on case volume, and acknowledged Western Highlands for being one of the few provinces that had partnered with the National Magisterial Services.
He said once the magisterial services moved into Baiyer, other agencies like the police and the correctional institutional services would also become functional.
“The court house in Baiyer, we are bringing the entire one-stop shop,” he said.
“In the process we will localise the logistics arrangement and the support staff with the provincial government.”
