CANDIDATE NUMBER 38 FOR MORESBY SOUTH ELECTORATE

CANDIDATE NUMBER 38 FOR MORESBY SOUTH ELECTORATE

JAMES SMITH LOKO

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REASONS FOR CONTESTING THE ELECTIONS

There are very strong reasons that prompt me to contest the seat for the Moresby South Electorate.

1)    The people of the electorate need good strong leadership to represent them and fight for their basic rights.

2)    The majority of the people in the electorate originate from the Central and Gulf Province. My parents come from those two provinces. One of my grandparents (grandmother) is a motuan and provides me that link with the Motu Koitabu.

3)    While the macroeconomic picture shows a growth in the economy, the microeconomic scenario at least from the perspective of the people in the electorate shows;

·        high rate of unemployment,

·        high rate of illiteracy,

·        high cost of goods and services,

·        high level of youth involved in crime,

·        health and hygiene problems in many of the poorer areas of the electorate,

·        poor municipal and other public services,

·        low level of skills or no skills among youth,

·        loss of land through alienation or through ignorance,

·        poor and/or insufficient educational infrastructure to meet the increased level of school aged children.

4)    The retirement of the current Member of Parliament leaves the electorate open to candidates without the appropriate qualification, skills and experience.

5)    Support for me to contest the elections is beginning to grow as people learn about my qualification, skills, knowledge, experience and achievements.

6)    My principles and ethics prove that I am a man of integrity, honesty, fair and impartial, understanding, compassionate, humble, loyal and will help people particularly in relation to those who struggle to survive/sustain a living.

7)    I have that desire, integrity, commitment and drive to contest the elections and have the confidence to win.

8)    I can contribute to national development by advocating for a change to how policies are being implemented. National policies do not achieve the desired results at the grass roots level because the approach of the authorities does not seem to be workable or if it is, it does not reflect the desired outcomes expected by the Government.

This is because the priorities and needs of each province or locality is different considering the cultural, geographical and socioeconomic diversity of the country.

A point in case is the education policy in relation to school leavers. While fee free education and universal education to grade 12 is available, there is the question of what happens to school leavers and the growing number of school aged children and youth leaving the education system because of insufficient education infrastructure and teacher resources?

What is happening for those school leavers in the past who were ousted by the current education policy and have no basic skills and have no opportunity for employment? Using the current system, vocational training should be used to provide technical training for many of those school leavers to obtain skills in electrical, carpentry, plumbing, bricklaying, auto electrical/auto mechanical, hospitality, fishnet mending, outboard motor mechanical training etc, etc. Currently, for vocational enrolments, to be eligible one must be a grade 8 or 10 school leaver.  This should be opened up to allow those who dropped out in the lower grades.

The outcome of this change or addition to the policy will result in a growing number of people with technical skills, who are able to get employed and more importantly contribute in developing their country economically and socially.

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VISION

My VISION for the electorate is

THE WELFARE OF THE LESS FORTUNATE ARE IMPROVED AND THAT THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ENCOMPASSES ALL IN A FAIR AND EQUITABLE MANNER.

MISSION

To achieve this end, my MISSION is to get at least

80% OF THE VOTING POPULATION IN THE ELECTORATE.

My success will be based on the following grounds:

1)    EMPOWERMENT: Empower people to be self reliant and self sustaining.

2)    PROACTIVENESS: Encourage National and State authorities to be proactive rather than reactive in service delivery and avoid focus on revenue generation.

3)    ENVIRONMENT FOR CHANGE: Promote an environment for reform of National policies or adopt new approaches to implement national policies at the micro level.

4)    LAND SECURITY: Develop an environment of security for local landowners on issues relating to land.

VALUES

My will and commitment is driven by a set of VALUES that are based on:

1)    COMPASSION: Empathy for the struggle and hardship of the vast majority of the population living in the suburbs and settlements of the electorate.

2)    FAIRNESS: Every man woman and child has basic equal rights to all social, political and economic benefits and opportunities.

3)    WILL AND COMMITMENT: I have the will, commitment and drive to ensure that the people in the electorate develop and the social and economic welfare of the people have and continue to improve.

4)    STRATEGIC: The issues I pursue are being experienced in other parts of the country and will garner support of other Parliamentary representatives should I succeed in securing the seat.

5)    LONG TERM APPROACH: Policy reforms and a new approach will change the stance of Government of the day to become proactive rather than be reactive to circumstances as they arise.

6)    PRAGMATISM: Every problem has a solution. The National and State authorities seem to look at it in a different light based on their arguments on scarce resources or differing priorities.

7)    LOYALTY: My resume shows that I remained in the same employ for a considerable length of time and indicates my loyalty and dedication.

8)    UNITY: A vast majority of the voter population are from the Gulf and Central province which I am a part of and this will be of great advantage to me.

Personal information

Personal
Name			James Smith Loko
Marital Status			Widowed Parent
Province of Origin			Gulf/Central
District of Origin			Malalaua/rigo
Mobile phone
BMobile			(675) 7645499
Citiphone			(675) 6536634
Digicel			(675) 72865324
Educational Information
Institute			Year
University of papua new guinea			1978	bachelors degree in economics
Commonwealth association of tax administrators			1983	certificate in tax administration
national research institute			1991	diploma in economic policy analysis
revenue canada			1993	certificate for advanced tax administration
Professional Information
Year	Organisation	Responsibility
2007	Project Development & Planning (PDP) Australia	Deputy Project Leader – Conducted a study of the Unit Cost of Education of elementary, lower & upper primary, lower & upper secondary and vocational training in papua new guinea to determine how much it would cost to educate a child satisfactorily in each level of education as opposed to the current cost of education schools were experiencing and make recommendations on how much it would cost the png government the projected cost of education over 20 years in terms of infrastructure, human and financial costs.
2004	nefc	Tax Revenue Consultant – Undertook a study of the revenue system of national, provincial & local level governments and made recommendations to amend the organic law on provincial and local level governments to allow those provincial & local level governments flexibility in generating their internal revenues.
2006	nefc
2000	Department of treasury	Deputy Team Leader – Undertook a study of the direct and indirect tax system of the national government & recommended a number of changes that would reform the system of tax in png to make it fair, simple, equitable and easy to understand.
1995 – 1999	IRC	Commissioner General – Had executive control of both tax & customs operations. undertook to advice the national government on all matters relating to tax policy and legislation. was instrumental in introducing tax and tariff and excise reforms in the late 1990’s. presented the government’s position on tax matters including amendments of tax legislation to the annual mining and petroleum conferences. involved in budget planning relating to revenue collections and projections and expenditure estimates of the irc on an annual basis.
	ASIA PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION	Active member of the committee of customs procedures and succeeded in securing technical training for customs officials in other asia/pacific customs administrations and also implemented most of the objectives of APEC in respect to customs procedures and administration.
	COMMONWEALTH ASSOCIATION OF TAX ADMINISTRATORS	was an active member of the management committee that oversaw the operations of the association in setting the goals and issues of the commonwealth member countries in developing and enhancing the operations of those member countries. also secured technical assistance for human resource development.
1997	DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE & PLANNING	Acting secretary – acted in the post of Secretary for six months until an appointment was made and resumed duties as the commissioner general.
1992 – 1995	IRC	Commissioner (Tax Operations) - Had executive management control of Taxation Operations in monitoring, controlling, planning and budgeting the operations of direct taxation.
1991 – 1992	IRC	Assistant Commissioner – Mining & Petroleum Taxation. Was responsible for administering tax compliance and administration of all mining and petroleum companies in PNG.
1978-1991	irc	performed duties in various legal, technical and managerial capacities in all aspects of tax administration relating to the different types of national taxes.