Papua New Guinea Police Nab Indonesian National in Illegal Eagle Wood and Firearm Bust

Papua New Guinea has taken a major step toward modernizing how it manages public resources with the launch of its first locally developed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. Hosted on the PNG Government Cloud and built by Port Moresby-based tech firm Kumulsoft Limited in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the system aims to bring transparency and control to the handling of government assets—ranging from vehicles and buildings to inventory and official documents.

The platform, now available to both public agencies and private enterprises, digitizes the full lifecycle of fixed assets, offering real-time tracking, audit trails, and centralized oversight. It directly responds to persistent weaknesses in public financial management, such as lost or unaccounted assets, delayed reporting, and leakage of funds—problems long flagged in national audit reports.

 Papua New Guinea Unveils Homegrown Digital Platform to Track Public Assets

At the launch event in Port Moresby, Hon. Marsh Narewec, Member for Wau-Waria Open and co-founder of Kumulsoft, traced the company’s roots back to a simple but urgent need within government operations. “When you face real challenges, you don’t wait for someone else to fix them—you build the solution yourself,” he said. “Paul and I saw how fragmented asset records were across departments. That frustration became the spark. We wanted to prove that Papua New Guineans can design, build, and run world-class technology right here at home.”

What began as a modest Windows-based tool has evolved into a secure, cloud-native platform fully hosted within PNG’s sovereign digital infrastructure. The shift reflects both technical progress and a growing confidence in local capability.

Hon. Peter Tsiamalili Jr., Minister for Police, Leader of Government Business, and Acting Minister for ICT, underscored the financial stakes. Citing Auditor General findings from 2015 to 2019, he noted that nearly half of all public institutions had unresolved asset management gaps—amounting to an estimated K3.7 billion in unverified or missing resources.

“Imagine if that K3.7 billion had gone to schools, clinics, or roads instead of vanishing into administrative black holes,” Tsiamalili said. “This platform changes that. Every vehicle, every desk, every generator can now be accounted for. No more guesswork.”

He linked the launch to the government’s broader digital reform agenda, including the Digital Government Act 2022 and the national Digital Transformation Policy. The Kumulsoft system will eventually plug into emerging national infrastructure like the Digital ID framework, the government interoperability layer, and the digital procurement portal—creating a more connected, responsive public sector.

Kumulsoft CEO Raul S. Shah emphasized that the platform was conceived, coded, and supported entirely by Papua New Guinean professionals. “We didn’t import a template and rebrand it,” he said. “This was built from the ground up to fit our laws, our workflows, and our realities.”

Designed for reliability and ease of use, the service offers automatic updates, role-based access controls, and guaranteed uptime via the PNG Government Cloud. Government departments, state-owned enterprises, and private firms can trial the system free for 30 days and choose flexible subscription plans. Digital training and onboarding support are also included.

The launch drew strong support from development partners and industry figures, many of whom hailed it as a milestone in data sovereignty and local tech empowerment.

“For too long, we’ve assumed that innovation must come from overseas,” said Lydia Mau, a procurement officer with a provincial health authority. “Now we have proof that solutions for PNG’s biggest problems can—and should—be built by our own people.”

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Papua New Guinea Police Nab Indonesian National in Illegal Eagle Wood and Firearm Bust