PNG PM Marape Breaks Down Reasons Behind SOE Reshuffle

PNG Prime Minister James Marape has defended his decision to restructure oversight of the country's State-Owned Enterprises, telling Parliament yesterday that the move was long overdue and would sharpen the government's performance heading into the 2027 National Election.

The explanation came after Opposition Leader James Nomane pressed the Prime Minister during question time to justify the reorganisation carried out in Tuesday's Cabinet reshuffle. Nomane opened by congratulating the newly sworn-in ministers, but pushed the government to spell out exactly what the restructuring was meant to achieve.

The Opposition Leader zeroed in on the decision to hand PNG Power and several commodity boards to different ministers, warning that spreading responsibility this way risked conflicts of interest and could leave oversight weaker rather than stronger. He pressed Marape to explain how splitting up these responsibilities would actually translate into better service delivery for ordinary Papua New Guineans.

Marape told Parliament the shake-up was the product of a four-year assessment of how the government had been performing, and was designed to sharpen efficiency before the country heads to the polls in 2027. He explained that, until now, a single Minister for State-Owned Enterprises had been carrying an unwieldy load — overseeing more than fifteen separate portfolios through Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) alone.

That setup, the Prime Minister said, had become bogged down in bureaucracy, with too many approval layers standing between decisions and the essential services those decisions were meant to deliver. He pointed to PNG Power specifically, describing it as a company under serious strain that could no longer afford to wait in a queue behind a dozen other portfolios for ministerial attention.

Under the new arrangement, Marape said, KCH will keep its core function intact — owning and managing the state's commercial interests — but individual ministers will now take on policy oversight for the enterprises assigned to them. He framed the change as a way to cut administrative red tape, sharpen accountability and speed up decision-making, while leaving KCH's role as the state's investment holding company untouched.

The Prime Minister closed by tying the reforms directly to his government's broader push to lift service delivery before Papua New Guineans return to the polls in 2027.