Named, But Not Yet Suspended: The Circular Behind Marape's Purge


by PAUL L. KEBAIJA

A week after Prime Minister James Marape declared that suspensions of non-compliant agency heads would take "immediate effect", an internal circular from Chief Secretary Ivan Pomaleu reveals a different reality: not a single suspension has been executed, because not a single minister has done the paperwork.

External Circular No 35/2026, dated 28 July and addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and all ministers, carries an extraordinary admission. "Following the Prime Minister's letter of 22 July 2026, we have not received any nomination," Pomaleu writes. Under NEC Decision 174/2026, each suspension requires ministers and boards to first nominate an acting deputy, triggering a Public Service Commission process, and until that happens, "the full and complete process" cannot begin. Marape's non-negotiable purge is, for now, a purge on paper, stalled by the same ministerial inertia it was meant to punish.

The attached Department of Personnel Management table names 106 office holders, and the names are heavier than the earlier agency list suggested. Police Commissioner David Manning, Defence Secretary Hari John Akipe, Education Secretary Uke Kombra, Foreign Affairs Secretary Elias Wohengu and Central Bank Governor Elizabeth Genia all appear, alongside Auditor-General Gordon Kega, Acting Chief Ombudsman Tabitha Suwae, Clerk of Parliament Kala Aufa and, remarkably, ICAC's Acting Commissioner Don Sawong, appointed only weeks ago.

Read closely, the table widens the net well beyond the published compliance matrix. The trigger is failure to file either the 2024 or 2025 report, which is why heads of agencies marked green on the 2025 matrix, Police, Defence, Education, Agriculture, Lands are nonetheless listed for suspension over the missing 2024 year.

It also exposes the list's fragility. The National Airports Corporation entry names no CEO at all. The Securities Commission entry concedes officials "need to verify" its status. Mineral Resources Authority acting MD Harry Kore's entry carries a red annotation recording his protest that reports for both years were in fact provided. Several named officials took office only months ago NMSA's Pawa Limu in July 2026, Central's acting administrator Magini Raga this year, Hela's Ronny Angu in February and now face suspension over reports due before their appointments. And for the constitutional office holders, the table repeatedly hedges that officials must first "verify constitutional requirements of providing Report"; the closing notes admit tertiary institutions may lawfully report to DHERST instead, a point flagged "need to be verified".

In other words, the government compiled a suspension list before establishing whether all its targets were legally obliged to report to it, whether some had in fact reported, or who some of them even are.

The politics remain potent: Marape gets a roll-call of accountability eight months before writs are issued for the 2027 election. But the circular suggests the harder story is execution. Watch three things: whether ministers ever lodge nominations; whether the constitutional office holders Genia, Kega, Suwae, Sawong are quietly dropped on legal advice; and how many of the 106 follow Harry Kore in producing receipts.

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