Letter from Suva has been reliably told that following an interview in Suva late last month, the job was offered to her.

Laisa Taga
If you thought Lourdes Pangelinan had finished her regional good works, think again. The former Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) head could be back in the Council of the Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP) fold this month.

She is the top contender for the position of Manager for Development of the Regional Institution Framework (RIF) Stage Two.

Letter from Suva has been reliably told that following an interview in Suva late last month, the job was offered to her.

If she does take up the offer, she will be based in Suva at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Forum sources are confident she’ll take up the offer.

Pangelinan was one of five candidates shortlisted for the job. But only three were available for the interview. One could not make it and the other withdrew from the race. Those interviewed were:
• Ms Pangelinan,
• former Airports Fiji Limited chief executive Sakiusa Tuisolia,
• and former Fiji finance chief executive Paula Uluinaceva.

Both the Fiji candidates were amongst those sacked by military strongman Frank Bainimarama following the December military coup.

Forum sources say all the candidates were very impressive during the interview, bringing in their own experiences.

But it is understood the interview panel opted for Ms Pangelinan because “she can hit the ground running and because of her experience and her knowledge of the issues of CROP and the need for reform”.

Ms Pangelinan did a review of SPC in 1997. She was part of a team of consultants that was asked by PPAC (Pacific Plan Advisory Committee) to have a relook at Tony Hughes’ CROP review (Strengthening Regional Management: A Review of the Architecture for Regional Co-operation in the Pacific). Their report titled Reforming the Pacific Regional Institutional Framework was tabled at the Forum Leaders’ meeting last year.

Leaders at that meeting agreed to establish a taskforce to work through the issues identified by the RIF report and report back to them when they meet this year.

As manager for development of RIF, Ms Pangelinan will assist the taskforce develop a mechanism that is appropriate for the new forms of regionalism in the Pacific under Pacific Plan.

This plan will be for consideration by the taskforce and leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Remuneration? As a consultant she will be paid US$250 per working day and 15% withholding tax will be deducted unless an exemption certificate is provided. She is also entitled to per diems at the secretariat’s standard rates for the total duration of the contract (not only while on duty travel).

Hughes’ review done in 2005 had recommended slashing the number of regional organisations in the CROP group (10) to five. The survivors would be:

— The Suva-based Forum Secretariat,
— Honiara-based Forum Fisheries Agency,
— Suva-based Secretariat of the Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission,
— Apia-based Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, and
—the Noumea-headquartered Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

According to Hughes, these five, known as the G5s, are said to “relate to each other in quite an intimate way as they are donor driven and their collective efficiencies are well below expected”.
G5 would be dominated by an umbrella organisation called the Pacific Commission headed by a chief executive officer.

But the Pangelinan team’s report views the creation of a single organisation setup differently.

It proposed that existing CROP organisations be reorganised based on three pillars
a) A political and general policy institution, the Pacific Islands Forum and its secretariat;
b) A sector-focused technical institution, the Pacific Community and its secretariat;
c) Academic and training organisations, such as the Fiji School of Medicine, the Pacific Islands Development Programme and the University of the South Pacific.

The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat should, within two years, assimilate the current functions of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency relating to political and international legal issues and negotiations.

The Forum Secretariat will remain the pre-eminent political organisation and the political voice of the independent states. It would be headed by the secretary-general. It is role under the new setup would be to:
• support the Forum and associated Forum ministerial meetings and processes; and
• provide specialised policy support and assistance to Forum member governments in its areas of core expertise.

The Pacific Community Secretariat, headed by the director-general, would within two years integrate the current work programmes of SOPAC, SPBEA SPC, SPREP and FFA’s technical functions. In particular its fishery development work.

The South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) would be integrated into the Pacific Community Secretariat if and when membership issues are addressed in a way that makes its integration feasible and desirable.

The governance arrangements and legal framework for the new organisation would be provided by the existing Pacific Community.

This as a non-political institution has the widest membership coverage of all regional arrangements and provides for equal participation by both independent states and the territories.

The administrative arm of the new organisation would be known as the Pacific Community Secretariat or some similar name and headed by a Director-General.

The headquarters of the organisation would be in Noumea, the current seat of the Pacific Community.

Governance and management arrangements of the academic and training institutions–FSM, PIDP and USP—would not be changed as part of the proposed institutional reform process, according to the study.

Ms Pangelinan’s task is a short-term one. She is expected to present her first report on July 1. And if what she told the interview panel is correct, she will do a good job of what she is tasked to do. Let’s look forward to her first report.