Marape Suspends 70-Plus Agency Heads

by PAUL L. KEBAIJA

Prime Minister James Marape has carried out his threat. Following a National Executive Council decision last Wednesday, more than 70 heads of public sector institutions have been suspended with immediate effect for failing to submit their 2025 annual performance reports, a legal obligation under Section 22 of the PM&NEC Act 2020. The Chief Secretary has been directed to work with the Department of Personnel Management to appoint acting heads and open investigations into each suspended officer, under what Marape has branded the 2026 "Year of Reset".

The compliance matrix published by the Department of Prime Minister & NEC makes for uncomfortable reading not least because of who is on it.

Start with the institutions whose entire purpose is accountability. The Office of the Auditor General — the body that audits everyone else, filed nothing. Neither did the Ombudsman Commission, nor the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the flagship integrity institution of Marape's own making. The National Parliament itself recorded a nil submission, as did the Office of the National Executive Council, the very secretariat administering the compliance exercise. The Bank of Papua New Guinea, the Internal Revenue Commission, the Public Service Commission and the Department of Foreign Affairs round out an administrative sector where barely half of the 29 agencies complied.

The infrastructure sector is dominated by delinquent state-owned enterprises: Air Niugini, PNG Power, PNG Ports, Water PNG, PNG DataCo, Post PNG, the National Airports Corporation and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority all failed to report, a roll-call of the SOEs most often criticised for service failures and opaque finances.

The social sector fared worst of all at 31 per cent compliance. Every state university on the list, UPNG, Unitech, Goroka, the University of Environment & Natural Resources, Western Pacific University and the new Enga and medical universities, filed nothing. Of the 26 provincial health authorities and hospitals listed, only Western, Morobe and Eastern Highlands complied; Port Moresby General Hospital did not. The provinces were the most brazen: just three of 22 provincial governments, Simbu, Eastern Highlands and West New Britain, submitted reports. Bougainville, mid-way through its independence consultations, filed nothing.

Marape has framed the sweep as non-discriminatory: "It does not matter who you are or what position you hold." He noted this is the first such action in his seven years in office, an admission that invites its own question. The reporting obligation is not new; in 2025 only 39 of 170 agencies complied, and nobody was suspended then. Whether this is a genuine reset or a politically timed display of resolve will be tested by what follows: whether investigations conclude, whether "serial offenders" are actually removed, and whether the watchdog agencies, Auditor General, Ombudsman, ICAC, emerge with leadership intact or conveniently reshuffled.

For now, the red crosses number more than 100. The suspensions, more than 70. The gap between the two, and who quietly falls into it may prove the real story. The List of names will be out shortly.