PARLIAMENT
Part 3 of extracts from the Special Parliamentary Committee on General Election 2022 Report
FUNDING constraints and security concerns seem to have become synonymous with national events conducted in Papua New Guinea, and general elections are no exception.
The Special Parliamentary Committee on General Election 2022, in its report tabled in Parliament on Nov 30, 2023, provides more than 20 recommendations on how best to solve these problems.
Funding
The committee’s eight recommendations on election funding are that:
THE budget appropriations for the general elections must be done annually, commencing four years before the election year. This will ensure that there is smooth transition into the election year and that the costs for the election year are manageable, instead of lumping all costs during the election year. To ensure timely provision of funding for elections, there must be effective compliance with annual budget submissions by the Electoral Commission (EC) and support institutions per Section 51 of the Public Finances (Management) Act (PFMA); timely disbursement/payments of the appropriated funds by departments of treasury and finance per Section 53 of the PFMA; and effective procurement systems via the Special Procurement Committees of the relevant institutions;
THE procurement systems for the disciplinary forces (Royal PNG Constabulary (RPNGC), Defence Force (PNGDF) and Correctional Service (PNGCS)) for the elections be synergised by establishing Special Procurement Committees for all three forces with clear procurement guidelines. The procurement guidelines must have control measures in place, consistent with the National Procurement Act, PFMA and financial instructions, to ensure that funds are spent within budget and properly acquitted according to sound financial management practices. The three agencies should also cooperate and coordinate resources to ensure effective use of the funds under the auspices of the Joint Security Task Force (JSTF);
THE Inter-Departmental Election Committee (IDEC) as the election administrative coordination body, should ensure that the election work plans and budget plans by the PNGEC and relevant election agencies (such as the RPNGC, PNGDF, PNGCS, and provincial election steering committee (PESC) are completed and funded, starting from the year after the previous election (i.e. four years before election year), whilst prioritising especially funding that is required for preparatory activities;
FUNDING for the EC must be given annually, starting four years before the election year and this must be done in consideration of Sections 51 and 53 of the PFMA and Section 225 of the National Constitution which requires that operations of constitutional offices (including the EC) are funded through the appropriation bills approved by Parliament. Moreover, the EC’s Special Procurement Committee must apply a competitive bidding procurement system to ensure that the procured goods and services for the elections are of acceptable quality and standards;
SINCE the sub-national institutions are better placed to understand the specific problems of election planning and implementation in each province, more autonomy should be granted to the provinces for election planning and procurement and by implication more funding should be provided to the provinces annually for the four years before the election, through the PESCs. To ensure financial and administrative compliance, the IDEC and relevant national agencies, such as the Department of Treasury, Department of Finance and Auditor General’s Office (AGO), should provide the necessary coordination and scrutiny for the acquittal and reporting of election funds;
THE EC must plan and publish critical election dates such as campaign period, counting (scrutiny), and issue and return of writs, which must all be aligned to the polling dates. This will assist in security planning and cash flow planning to fund the election activities;
FUNDING support to state agencies and public offices from donor partners must be coordinated well to ensure that such support adds value to the election activities and not a duplication of particular activities; and that the focal point for donor funding be vested with the Department of National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM), consistent with the goals and principles in the 2015 PNG Development Cooperation Policy. Donor funding should then be added to the government allocation to consolidate election funding; and,
COMPLIANCE on submission of expenditure reports by the EC and relevant agencies must be improved by making it mandatory for the expenditure report to be submitted within six months after the return of writs for the election and the expenditure reports must be audited by the AGO within one year of receipt of the report, as authorised by Section 214, Subsections (2) and (3) of the Constitution. Failure to submit on time be made an offence under the Leadership Code Act 1976 and if the delay is criminal in nature then penalties under the Criminal Code shall apply.
Security
Recommendations on election security are that:
THE security agencies, led by the RPNGC, must be highly strategic in their planning and must execute their operational plans effectively and efficiently to address security matters, within the budget, human resource, and time constraints. Personnel involved in the conduct of the elections must enforce the election laws effectively and be accountable in their actions to set the standard for voters and candidates to reduce unethical behaviour by the voting public and candidates. To do this, every person involved in the administration of the election must sign a code of conduct before being involved in the election administration activities and failure to do so will attract a penalty;
THE severity of punishments for electoral offences under Section 191 of the Organic Law on National and Local Level Government Elections (OLNLLGE) be increased and also be effectively enforced by the EC, RPNGC and the courts. Effective enforcement should constitute better coordination between the EC, RPNGC, and citizens for reporting and prosecution of electoral offences within the justice system of PNG.
THE list of electoral offences under Section 191 of the OLNLLGE be updated to incorporate offences under Part 2 of the PNG Cybercrime Code Act 2016 (Offences and Penalties), as applicable to election activities;
ALL security agencies (RPNGC, PNGDF, PNGCS, National Intelligence Organisation (NIO), and Office of Security Coordination and Assessment (OSCA) be required by law to coordinate and consolidate their intelligence information in the form of an integrated intelligence task matrix to ensure that proper planning is done to act in time to mitigate potential areas of risk and trouble or violence prior to, during and after elections. To achieve this, relevant amendments be made in the OLNLLGE to account for the creation and use of intelligence information during elections;
AS part of promoting ethical conduct for the elections and peaceful and safe elections, the Information and Civic Awareness Branch of the EC must carry out its election awareness activities on key aspects of the elections annually during the five-year election cycle to convince the voters, candidates and supporters to conduct themselves ethically for matters relating to the elections;
THE RPNGC must effectively deter crimes committed under the Criminal Code and Summary Offences Acts during elections by applying appropriate incentives and penalties on the conduct of police personnel;
IN order to guard against collusion between members of parliament and security personnel, the integrity of the JSTF operations for elections must be maintained by ensuring that security personnel conduct themselves in a transparent and ethical manner, by rewarding good conduct and penalising bad conduct. Incentives can involve promotion or financial incentives within the guidelines of each of the security agencies. Penalty for bad behaviour shall, in the first instance, be prosecution under Criminal Code if the behaviour is criminal in nature or demotion or discipline under the relevant provision of the Police Act, by which the JSTF members are bound;
AN integrated security coding system (based on the RPNGC and PNGDF coding systems) be developed and used as a planning and risk management tool by the JSTF to ensure that the perceived risks associated with planning and conducting the elections are planned for and mitigated for General Election 2027 and onwards. As a planning tool, the coding system can be used to estimate the level of risk and allocate resource requirements in the security plan. As a risk management tool, the coding system can be used to devise prevention measures and implement them to mitigate election-related security issues;
A JOINT agencies’ agreement for key election stakeholders (EC, PNGDF, RPNGC, and PNGCS) be signed and implemented starting four years before the election year so that there is a clear terms of reference on areas of collaboration amongst the agencies as well as demarcation on what needs to be done, who should be responsible for what, and resource requirements. This will provide clarity on collaboration and what each agency’s role is and what resources are needed at any given time in the process of planning for and conducting the elections;
THE OLNLLGE and regulations or policies in the election security space must clearly define the powers of the security agencies and EC, so that there is synergy in the management of the election process and security matters;
THE security agencies led by the RPNGC and in alignment with the EC’s key messages, develop a consolidated security communications strategy to regularly inform the general public of the election security issues and the need for candidates, voters and the general to contribute to peaceful elections through good behaviour. The communication strategy should also include the penalties for illegal activities relating to the conduct of elections under the OLNLLGE, Criminal Code and Summary Offenses Act;
THE value of in-kind support by development partners to security agencies be provided to the DNPM as the focal point to capture the full value of support provided by development partners and assist in election planning and implementation and determination of the total cost of the elections;
IN order to ensure a peaceful environment for elections, the RPNC must effectively enforce the penalties for offences under the Firearms Act 1978 (Part XI) to deter offences such as possession of firearms under the influence of liquor (s.57); carrying firearm exposed to view in public place (s.58); discharge of firearms (s.59); threat to use firearm (s.60); and unauthorised possession of ammunition (s.65A) by empowering the police officers to carry their duties without fear or favour;
THE JSTF should be strengthened with human and financial resources to be more effective in determining the origins of weapons, the perpetrators, and the types of weapons and ammunitions; and profiling them so they can do intelligence-led operations to arrest the alleged offenders to face justice;
THE relevant provisions of the Police Act, in particular, Section 125(2) be effectively applied by the RPNGC to govern the conduct of all members of the JSTF during the elections to ensure that security personnel conduct themselves ethically in their line of duty in providing security services for the elections; and,
THE OLNLLGE be amended to include a provision for ensuring that all agencies involved in the intelligence space (i.e. RPNGC, PNGDF, PNGCS, NIO, and OSCA) work together so that intelligence can be easily accessed and used to make timely decisions to address law and order issues/threats and make elections better. Intelligence here denotes intelligence-related information, its analysis and assessments and dissemination to higher authorities for timely interventions.
Next week: Final part of recommendations by Special Parliamentary Committee on General Election 2022
