Success Story 2 - Mr. Francis Gumembi

Western province is one of the most isolated regions in Papua New Guinea. Since the PCaB Project started in 2008 its activities in the region, many challenges have been faced. Lack of infrastructure and ways of communication, no electricity and roads to connect its three districts, lack of public servants capacity, etc. However, one of the most significant difficulties in this region was for the Provincial Treasury to report the use of financial resources on time. It certainly was one of the impediments to increase the service delivery to the population in this remote PNG region.

Francis Gumenbi is one of the UNDP-PCaB district and LLGs advisers assigned in 2011 to this province. Since his incorporation, he has been working with the Provincial Treasury and Administration in order to built capacity in the provision of financial management services, especially on financial reporting.

Through a patient work using On-the-Job Training, Mentoring and Coaching approaches he has been able to provide technical expertise and build capacity to Treasury staff, who were trained in planning, budgeting, accounting and reporting. However, the late delivery of banks statements from the local bank was another impediment to the timely submission of financial reports to Department of Finance HQ in Port Moresby.

He coordinated with the local bank in order to receive the bank statements on line, instead of waiting for the printed copy for approximately 5 to 6 weeks. But, his supported staff had poor knowledge of computers and internet. So, he had to provide additional training in basic computer and internet, opening and setting up email accounts for them.

At the end of 2011, the province improved a lot in the accuracy and timely submission of financial reports. Francis was able to built synergies with all provincial stakeholders and addressed all the mentioned difficulties in the region. By December 2011, he put the Province within the international standards in terms of financial reports, thus the Western Provincial Administration can now receive more funds on time and deliver more services to the population.