Peace Agreements Digital Collection: Bougainville (Papua New Guinea)
Bougainville Peace Agreement
Autonomy (continued)
Personnel
Provisions Applying Generally to Public Service, Police and Correctional Institutional Services
Implementation as Packages
The agreed arrangements for the Public Service, Police and Correctional Institutional Services (CIS) in Bougainville will each be implemented as a package.
Application to Other Bodies
The arrangements applying to the Bougainville Public Service will also apply to the Teaching Service and all public authorities established by the autonomous Bougainville Government (except where special arrangements have been agreed to apply to Police and CIS).
Constitutional Basis
The National Constitution will be amended to allow the autonomous Bougainville Government to establish and to make laws regarding a Bougainville Public Service, Police and Bougainvillle equivalent to the CIS ('Bougainville CIS') consistent with this Agreement.
The Heads of the Bougainville Public Service, Police and CIS will be responsible to the autonomous Bougainville Government through a Minister (or equivalent) appointed under the Bougainville Constitution.
Recruitment, Employment and Industrial Relations
Bougainville law will provide for recruitment and terms and conditions of employment for the Bougainville Public Service, Police and CIS to be based on individual merit.
Bougainville will accept the National industrial relations system.
Oath of Allegiance
Members of the Bougainville Public Service, Police and CIS will swear allegiance to the Head of State of Papua New Guinea.
National Public Service, Police and CIS
The Papua New Guinea Public Service, Police and CIS will remain national organizations, which recruit throughout Papua New Guinea.
Co-operative Arrangements
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government will agree to arrangements to:
facilitate transfers, secondment and exchanges of personnel;
provide for core training and personnel development programmes, together with utilization of common training facilities throughout Bougainville and the rest of Papua New Guinea; and
provide for regular consultations between the most senior officers responsible for Public Service, Police and CIS matters in the National Government, the autonomous Bougainville Government and Provincial Governments, and other senior officers.
Public Service
Control
The Bougainville Public Service will be subject only to the control of the autonomous Bougainville Government through a Minister (or equivalent) of that Government.
Bougainville Law
Bougainville law will provide for standards for management and control of public servants, work value criteria and standards for pay determination, as well as classification and grade structure compatible with those of the National Public Service.
Bougainville laws on the above will be made following consultations with the National Government.
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government, through their respective Ministers and responsible Public Service Heads, will consult with a view to reaching agreement before general pay increases which will impact on the National and Bougainville budgets.
The autonomous Bougainville Government will consult the National Government before making or amending the Bougainville Public Service General Orders (or their equivalent).
Institutional Arrangements
The autonomous Bougainville Government will consult the Head of the National Government Department responsible for National Public Service personnel matters before appointing the most senior Public Servant responsible for Public Service matters in Bougainville.
Information and Monitoring
The National Government will monitor developments in the Bougainville Public Service.
The autonomous Bougainville Government will keep the National Government informed about developments in the Bougainville Public Service, including proposed changes of policy and budgetary allocations for personnel, and facilitate monitoring by the National Government.
Constitutional Provisions for Appeal and Review of Public Service Matters
The Bougainville Constitution will make provision for an independent body which will be responsible for reviewing decisions on personnel matters in relation to the Bougainville Public Service.
The autonomous Bougainville Government will meet the costs of this body.
National Public Service Offices in Bougainville
The National Public Service will continue to establish positions and transfer personnel to Bougainville to carry out National powers and functions.
The autonomous Bougainville Government will co-operate with the National Government to ensure that such positions and personnel can be filled and operate efficiently and effectively.
Phased Implementation Plan, Interim Arrangements and Transitional Period
Until such time as the autonomous Bougainville Government establishes the Bougainville Public Service, the National Government will facilitate progress towards greater autonomy in the management of the Public Service in Bougainville through delegations by the Departmental Head responsible for Personnel Management matters in the National Public Service, to the Bougainville Administrator under current legislation.
These transitional arrangements will be implemented on receipt of a request from the Bougainville Interim Provincial Government or the autonomous Bougainville Government.
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government will develop a recruitment and training plan for building Public Service capacity in Bougainville.
On the coming into force of the law establishing the Bougainville Public Service, a mutually agreed transitional period will be effected by the Act, during which period serving public servants will remain as members of the National Public Service. On conclusion of the transitional period, all of those public servants will become members of the Bougainville Public Service, other than any who choose not to leave the National Public Service. The National Government will be responsible for the accrued rights and entitlements of transferred public servants to the point of transfer. Those rights and entitlements will be fully portable.
During the transitional period, the National Public Service and the Bougainville Public Service will give proper consideration to the transfer of public servants in Bougainville who may wish to serve elsewhere in Papua New Guinea and the integration or secondment into the Bougainville Public Service of those members of the National Public Service who wish to continue to serve in the Bougainville Public Service.
During the transitional period, the Bougainville Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of the Department of Personnel Management, will plan for implementation of the Bougainville Public Service, including determination of:
organization structures;
terms and conditions;
General Orders; and
manpower budgets.
The transitional arrangements will include the development and publication of Bougainville General Orders to be executed by the Bougainville Administrator under powers of delegation granted under the Public Services (Management) Act.
The plan will be subject to the authority of the autonomous Bougainville Government.
The National Public Services (Management) Act, together with Bougainville General Orders, will apply in Bougainville until the autonomous Bougainville Government makes and implements equivalent legislation or General Orders of its own.
Police
Control and Command
The Bougainville Police will be subject only to the control of the autonomous Bougainville Government through a Minister (or equivalent) of that Government.
The Bougainville Police will not be subject to command except in accordance with Bougainville law.
Head of Bougainville Police
The Head of the Bougainville Police will be appointed and subject to removal for just cause by an independent commission established under the Bougainville Constitution, which will include two representatives of the National Government, one of whom will be the Commissioner of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) or his nominee.
The head of the Bougainville Police will have a title other than Commissioner, and hold a rank below that of Commissioner of the RPNGC.
Functions of Bougainville Police
The Bougainville Police will be responsible for preserving peace and good order and maintaining and, as necessary, enforcing both National and Bougainville laws in an impartial and objective manner, and with full regard for human rights.
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government will agree to arrangements for maintaining and enforcing National laws.
The National Government (working, where appropriate, through the RPNGC) will inspect and audit compliance of the Bougainville Police in respect of maintaining and enforcing National laws.
The autonomous Bougainville Government will facilitate these inspections and audits.
Any differences about agreed arrangements will be resolved through the agreed dispute resolution procedures.
Role of RPNGC
The RPNGC may itself exercise its functions in Bougainville.
The autonomous Bougainville Government and the Bougainville Police, and the National Government and the RPNGC, will develop appropriate agreed arrangements to facilitate the exercise of those functions.
The autonomous Bougainville Government and the Bougainville Police will provide all reasonable assistance to the RPNGC in the exercise of those functions.
The parties accept that the National Government has no immediate plans to redeploy Police Mobile Units or similar units to Bougainville after they have been withdrawn in accordance with the agreed weapons disposal plan.
After phased withdrawal, RPNGC Police Mobile Units or similar units will be deployed to Bougainville only after consultation (through procedures appropriate to the urgency of the particular situation) and consensus is reached between the National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government in support of that deployment.
The Bougainville Police will not develop the equivalent of an armed Police Mobile Unit.
Training, Rank Structure and Uniforms of Bougainville Police
Bougainville law for the Bougainville Police will provide for the following:
core training and personnel development arrangements consistent with those of the RPNGC; and
rank structure, and terms and conditions of employment consistent with those of the RPNGC.
The uniforms, vehicles, premises and stationery of the Bougainville Police will include the National Emblem or name.
Co-operative Policing
The co-operative arrangements for the Bougainville Police will include:
mutual assistance in law enforcement;
compatible policing standards, procedures and equipment, including co-operative procurement arrangements.
The Bougainville Police and the RPNGC will develop agreed arrangements for continuing access by the Bougainville Police to specialist services (for example, forensic, criminal investigation, etc.) and other support from the RPNGC.
The parties recognise that these agreed policing arrangements will require a balance between the following needs:
for the fundamentals of criminal law to be consistent and capable of consistent enforcement throughout Papua New Guinea; and
for Bougainville to be able to develop its own approaches to criminal law.
Funding
The National Government will provide the autonomous Bougainville Government with funding by way of guaranteed annual conditional grants for the specific purpose of meeting the recurrent costs of policing in Bougainville.
The minimum grant will be sufficient to support existing levels of police activities in Bougainville.
The grant will be adjusted annually on the same basis as the adjustment of the recurrent grant.
The National Government will provide the autonomous Bougainville Government with guaranteed conditional grants intended to:
restore civilian peacetime policing in Bougainville, one measure to be the reaching of normal levels of policing elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, such funding to be taken into account in the calculation of the amount of the grant for recurrent costs of policing in subsequent years;
provide for further development of policing services in Bougainville.
Grants to the autonomous Bougainville Government in relation to policing will be taken into account when determining progress towards fiscal self-reliance by the autonomous Bougainville Government.
The additional costs of establishing and maintaining the Bougainville Police outside the RPNGC will be equitably shared between the National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government.
Emergencies and Other Support
The Bougainville Police and the autonomous Bougainville Government will maintain order and enforce the law on behalf of Bougainville and the State as a whole and shall seek support and assistance from other appropriate state agencies to deal with threats or situations in which that support or assistance is required.
On the request of the autonomous Bougainville Government, the RPNGC may deploy additional police to assist the Bougainville Police.
Transitional Arrangements for Bougainville Policing
Until such time as the autonomous Bougainville Government establishes the Bougainville Police under the Bougainville Constitution, the National Government will facilitate progress towards greater autonomy in the policing arrangements in Bougainville through delegations by the Police Commissioner of administrative and operational powers and functions to the Provincial Police Commander in Bougainville.
These arrangements will be implemented on receipt of a request from the Bougainville Interim Provincial Government.
The Bougainville Police will initially be made up of RPNGC personnel who will serve on a basis to be agreed.
The RPNGC Commissioner will consult the executive of the autonomous Bougainville Government on the appointment of the Police Commander in Bougainville and appoint their nominee.
The National Government will make the delegations of administrative and operational powers and functions in such a way that the Commander is, in practice, responsible (through a Minister or equivalent) to the Bougainville Interim Provincial Government, and, when it is established, the autonomous Bougainville Government.
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government will develop a recruitment and training plan for building Bougainville Police capacity.
The RPNGC and the Bougainville Police will give reasonable consideration to the transfer of RPNGC personnel in Bougainville who wish to serve elsewhere in Papua New Guinea and the integration or secondment into the Bougainville Police of those members of the RPNGC who wish to serve in the Bougainville Police.
The National Police Act will continue to apply in Bougainville, subject to necessary modifications, until the autonomous Bougainville Government passes its own legislation concerning police.
Correctional Institutional Services
Control
The Bougainville CIS will have the same relationship with the autonomous Bougainville Government as the National CIS has with the National Government.
Head of Bougainville CIS
The Head of Bougainville CIS will be appointed and subject to removal for just cause by an independent commission established under the Bougainville Constitution, which will include two representatives of the National Government, one of whom will be the Commissioner of the National CIS or his nominee.
The Head of the Bougainville CIS will have a title other than 'Commissioner', and hold a rank below that of Commissioner of the National CIS.
Functions of Bougainville CIS
The Bougainville CIS will be responsible for containing and rehabilitating offenders on behalf of the National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government in accordance with law and Papua New Guinea's international obligations, including humane treatment of prisoners and respect for human rights.
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government will agree to arrangements for co-operating in the containment, rehabilitation and transfer of prisoners, including escapees, held under one another's laws.
The National Government (working, where appropriate, through the National CIS) will inspect and audit compliance of the Bougainville CIS in respect of maintaining and enforcing National standards and laws.
The autonomous Bougainville Government will facilitate these inspections and audits.
Any differences about agreed arrangements will be resolved through the agreed dispute resolution procedures.
Training, Rank Structure and Uniforms of Bougainville CIS
Bougainville law for the Bougainville CIS will provide for the following:
core training and personnel development arrangements consistent with those of the National CIS; and
rank structure, and terms and conditions of employment consistent with those of the National CIS.
The uniforms, vehicles, premises and stationery of the Bougainville CIS will include the National Emblem or name.
Co-operation
The co-operative arrangements for the Bougainville CIS will promote compatible professional standards, including procedures concerning storage, access and use of weapons.
The Bougainville CIS and the National CIS will co-operate in weapons procurement; the Bougainville CIS will not have high-powered weapons.
The Bougainville CIS and the National CIS will develop agreed arrangements for continuing access by the Bougainville CIS to specialist services and exchanges (for example, training, riot drills, exchanges of personnel for professional development within Papua New Guinea and internationally).
The National CIS may deploy personnel to Bougainville on receipt of a request for assistance from the Bougainville CIS.
The parties recognise that these agreed CIS arrangements will require a balance between the following needs:
for consistent standards and application throughout Papua New Guinea; and
for Bougainville to be able to develop its own approaches to containment and rehabilitation of offenders.
Funding
The recurrent costs of the Bougainville CIS will be met from the annual unconditional recurrent grant to the autonomous Bougainville Government.
The National Government will provide the autonomous Bougainville Government with guaranteed conditional grants intended to:
support restoration of civil authority in Bougainville, one measure to be the reaching of normal levels of CIS elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, such funding to be taken into account in the calculation of the amount of the recurrent grant in subsequent years;
provide for further development of CIS in Bougainville.
The additional costs of establishing and maintaining the Bougainville CIS outside the National CIS will be equitably shared between the National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government.
Transitional Arrangements for Bougainville CIS
Until such time as the autonomous Bougainville Government establishes the Bougainville CIS under the Bougainville Constitution, the National Government will facilitate progress towards greater autonomy in the CIS arrangements in Bougainville through delegations by the CIS Commissioner of administrative and operational powers and functions to the Provincial CIS Commander in Bougainville.
These arrangements will be implemented on receipt of a request from the Bougainville Interim Provincial Government or the autonomous Bougainville Government.
The Bougainville CIS will initially be made up of National CIS personnel who will serve on a basis to be agreed, subject to the availability of funding.
The National CIS Commissioner will consult the executive of the autonomous Bougainville Government on the appointment of the CIS Commander in Bougainville and appoint their nominee.
The National Government will make the delegations of administrative and operational powers and functions in such a way that the Commander is, in practice, responsible (through a Minister or equivalent) to the Bougainville Interim Provincial Government, and, when it is established, the autonomous Bougainville Government.
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government will develop a recruitment and training plan for building capacity of the Bougainville CIS.
The National CIS and the Bougainville CIS will give reasonable consideration to the transfer of National CIS personnel in Bougainville who wish to serve elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, and the integration or secondment into the Bougainville CIS of those members of the National CIS who wish to serve in the Bougainville CIS.
The National Correctional Service Act will continue to apply in Bougainville, subject to necessary modifications, until the autonomous Bougainville Government passes its own legislation concerning CIS.
The autonomous Bougainville Government will assume responsibility for CIS in conjunction with assuming responsibility for Police.
Intergovernmental Relations
Joint Supervisory Body
The autonomous Bougainville Government and the National Government will consult over implementation of autonomy through a joint supervisory body, which will also be used to consult with a view to resolving any disputes.
The joint supervisory body (whose name will be mutually determined) will consist of equal numbers of members representing the National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government; its functions will be to:
oversee implementation of arrangements for the establishment and operation of the autonomous Bougainville Government;
prepare draft legislation to further the objectives of this Agreement;
finalise matters of detail; and
resolve any differences or disputes.
Settling Disputes
The autonomous Bougainville Government and the National Government will try to resolve disputes by consultation, or, where required, through mediation or arbitration.
If a dispute cannot be resolved in one of the above ways, then it may be taken to court.
The details of dispute resolution procedures, including their application to particular provisions, will be specified and integrated during drafting of Constitutional Laws to give legal effect to this Agreement.
No Suspension or Withdrawal of Powers
The National Government will not have the power to withdraw powers from the autonomous Bougainville Government or suspend it.
Consultations
If consultation is required it will proceed through the following steps:
timely communication of views in writing to a specified point of contact;
adequate opportunity to respond in a similar way;
where there are differences, meaningful exchange of views within an adequate, agreed or specified time-frame, either orally or in writing, with a view to reaching agreement; and
clear, written record of outcome (either agreement or different views), provided for all parties.
States of Emergency
The Bougainville Constitution will specify the procedures which the autonomous Bougainville Government will follow in dealing with situations in Bougainville similar to those covered in the emergency provisions of the National Constitution.
In circumstances where it is necessary to declare a state of emergency in Bougainville, the autonomous Bougainville Government will be responsible for initiating a request.
The National Government and the autonomous Bougainville Government will co- operate in the management of a declared state of emergency.
If it is necessary to declare a state of emergency in Bougainville and the autonomous Bougainville Government fails to initiate a timely request, the National Government will use its best endeavours to consult the autonomous Bougainville Government.
Only if the situation is urgent and consultation is not practicable will the National Government be able to declare a state of emergency in Bougainville.
The parties acknowledge that the power to initiate and declare states of emergency which apply nationally, or substantially in other parts of Papua New Guinea or in relation to a declared war will remain a National Government responsibility (states of emergency which apply only in other parts of Papua New Guinea will not be affected by this agreement).
Posted by USIP Library on: April 9 2002
Source Name: Text e-mailed from the Adviser to the Papua New Guinea Government on the Bougainville Peace Process
Date e-mailed: October 31 2001
