Group photo of the Minister Ghemu and the rest of MPGIS Staff
The Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS) held a short welcoming briefing on May 13, 2024, for their new Minister, Hon. Wayne Ghemu. The Minister accepted the mandate from the Government for National Unity and Transformation (GNUT) with pride and humility, a gesture that was well appreciated by the MPGIS staff.
Hon. Wayne Ghemu is the newly elected member for Ranonga Simbo Constituency in Western Province. During the briefing, the Minister introduced himself and further expressed his happiness to join MPGIS team. Hon. Ghemu thanked the Supervising PS and the staff for the briefing and he looks forward to learning from the team in the Ministry.
Even though the briefing was short, he affirmed that he learned lot of things that would help him to settle in quickly. He indicated that it might take a bit of time to get used to the government protocols and procedures since he had been out from the government systems for many years. He nonetheless expressed hope that with the support from the Ministry experts and the support staff, his workload would be easier and that he expects a friendly working relations with an open door policy.
Supervising PS for MPGIS, Dr. Melchior Mataki congratulated and welcomed Hon. Wayne Ghemu as the new Minister for MPGIS. He informed the staff that the purpose of the meeting was to introduce the Minister formally to all members of staff, the staff to introduce themselves to the Minister and to provide essential information about the Ministry and its work. PS Mataki assured Minister Ghemu all the support he needs from the Ministry staff to smoothly execute his responsibilities.
During the briefing the Chief Technical Advisor and the Coordinator of PCDF informed the Minister that the Ministry did not only support the provinces in delivering over 1,660 projects over 13 years, but it also capacitated the Nine Provinces for improved governance. Central and Isabel Provinces have been consistently acquiring CLEAN AUDIT REPORT for more than three years, something that was unimaginable 15 years ago. Western and Choiseul, he was told, have had qualified audit reports for almost 10 years in a row whilst Temotu joined the qualified audit report club in the past two years.
The Minister was assured that the MPGIS would continue its capacity development of the remaining provinces to come up to speed with those who have graduated from DISCLAIMER OF AUDIT OPINION. In addition, the Minister was informed that as a direct support of MPGIS and its projects since 2010, all Provinces are now capable of planning, procuring and implementing high quality resilient infrastructure projects using their own engineers.
The divisional heads from the Governance Division, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Services, Monitoring and Evaluation, Internal Audit, Legal, and Provincial Governance Strengthening Program (PGSP), which includes the IEDCR project, took time during the meeting to introduce themselves and discussed their work. From these brief discussions, the Minister was introduced to the roles and responsibilities of MPGIS divisions and the projects that operate within the Ministry. At the end of the briefing, The Minister, the PS and the MPGIS staff participated in a fellowship lunch.
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Minister Ghemu, PS Mataki, and PME-IEDCR/CTA PGSP, Momodou Lamin Sawaneh, pose for a shot with the MPGIS Heads of Divisions
DS for Governance, Robert Kaua who was the MC for the briefing
Minister for MPGIS Hon. Wayne Ghemu making his remarks during the briefing at MPGIS Conference room
Minister Ghemu and Supervising PS for MPGIS, Dr. Melchior Mataki
Minister leading the way in the food fellowship part of the briefing
New Minister for MPGIS, MP for Ranongga, Hon. Wayne Ghemu, during a briefing organised by MPGIS at the MPGIS Conference room
Some of the MPGIS staff in the briefing
Some of the MPGIS staff queuing up for food