PAPUA New Guinea has rolled out a new electronic recruitment system for senior public service appointments, a move the Marape government says will eliminate paper files, speed up hiring and harden the state against nepotism, political interference and favouritism.
Prime Minister James Marape said the platform would replace the old manual process with a centralised digital system that judges candidates on qualifications, leadership, experience and performance.
The government says recent shortlisting exercises that once could have taken days were completed in about 30 minutes under the new system.
“We cannot continue to run a modern nation with old systems,” Marape said, casting the reform as part of a broader push to remake the machinery of government under the country’s “Reset at 50” agenda.
The programme, launched during Papua New Guinea’s 50th anniversary of independence in 2025, is intended to modernise state institutions and prepare them for a growing population and rising governance demands.
Marape said the recruitment platform was designed to make appointments more transparent and merit-based, giving qualified Papua New Guineans a fairer shot at senior public service jobs.
The administration says the system will reduce room for backroom influence by moving assessment and shortlisting into a digital workflow.
The platform was developed by the Department of Personnel Management with support from the Central Agency Coordinating Committee, bringing together the Departments of Personnel Management, Treasury, Finance, National Planning, Justice and Attorney-General, the Public Service Commission, the Internal Revenue Commission and other agencies.
Officials say the recruitment overhaul is only the first phase of a wider digital reform drive.
The government plans to extend similar systems into procurement, tendering and project delivery, using information technology and artificial intelligence to improve transparency, monitor contracts and tighten oversight of public spending.
For Marape, the message is bigger than recruitment. Digital systems, he said, should help government make faster decisions, deliver services more efficiently and ensure that appointments are based on “merit, competence and integrity,” not connections.
The launch adds to a series of public-sector reforms in a country that has been under pressure to improve governance, strengthen service delivery, and rebuild investor confidence.
The government is betting that technology can do part of the heavy lifting, but the political test will be whether the new system holds up once it is used at scale, across agencies, and under scrutiny.
