20 Apr 2009

PNG government must do more on policing, says Enga Governor

8:01 pm on 20 April 2009

The Governor of PNG's Enga Province says the government has been dragging its feet on moves to build capacity within the country's police force.

Peter Ipatas says provincial governments like his have had a long struggle to get the national government to respond to their policing needs.

Mr Ipatas has been critical of the recent move by cabinet to have the Defence Force deployed to Porgera Valley to combat the upsurge in lawlessness, including tribal fighting and illegal mining in Enga's gold-rich area.

However he's pleased that the national government has finally agreed to deploy around 200 new police officers to Porgera which he says is just one in a series of security hotspots around PNG which need more able policing.

"We can talk all day but what are we doing about it? We haven't increased our manpower, we are not retrenching our old policemen, we're not giving training for investigators, we don't have properly trained prosecutors, and you know, the list goes on."

Peter Ipatas