Head of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Matsuoka Hideaki has requested the PNG government and its implementing agencies to continue to provide leadership, maintain cooperation and continue to have in place necessary arrangements with donor agencies such as JICA to reap maximum benefits from various projects implemented. Mr. Hideaki said this when addressing the first Joint Coordinating Committee meeting for Phase 2 of Improving Resource Related Revenue Management Project between PNGEITI and JICA officials in Port Moresby on the 30th September 2024. The comments by the senior JICA representative comes at a time when JICA marks 50 years of development assistance to PNGMr. Hideaki says “in order to maximize and sustain the outcome and impact of the project (Resource Related Revenue Management), it is necessary to maintain and strengthen further its implementing structure”.
The first JCC meeting chaired by Deputy Secretary Economic Policy Department of Treasury, John Uware brought together consultants to provide the update of the project being conducted at Auditor General’s Office and Department of Petroleum, and recommend a way forward. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Department of Treasury, Auditor General’s Office, Department of Petroleum, Department of National Planning, & Monitoring, Internal Revenue Commission, and Customs. The Project for Improving Resource Related Revenue Management started in 2018 following a request from PNG government through the Department of Treasury to address the recommendations from the first PNGEITI Report of which, among others the need to improve license registry at the Department of Petroleum (DPE) and also to build the capacities of government agencies in data collection and reporting for EITI with high priority. Phase 1 of the JICA Project concluded in 2022 with the project purpose and outputs achieved. The Phase 2 Project is a continuation and enhancement of the progress made in Phase 1 by looking at the following two main outputs:
- Output 1: Capacity strengthening at the Auditor General’s Office (AGO) – “Support and establish an assurance mechanism with testing the resource-related revenues of the government by AGO to improve the reliability of the financial data for EITI reporting purposes to comply with EITI Best practice Requirements”;
- Output 2: DPE data management – “Continue to improve management of license information and production, export and revenue data to establish timely and systematic disclosure mechanism at DPE to comply with EITI Requirements”.
