Goina charts army’s pathway for 2023

The National Weekender
The Papua New Guinea Defence Force, under the command of Major General Mark Goina will align its efforts to achieving key objectives in the coming years: Developing its people to be skilled, resilient and sustainable; organisational reform; logistics and enablers; infrastructure; and nation-building.
Goina outlined his plans during his end-of-year parade speech at the Murray Barracks on Dec 16, 2022.
Dignitaries at the parade included Minister for Defence Win Daki, Secretary for Defence Hari John Akipe, Members of the Diplomatic Corp, Defence attaches and advisors who are in attendance, representatives from RPNGC and CS, commanding officers of the army’s units. Below is part of Maj Gen Goina’s speech.

I ask you to join me in saying thank you to God for another year of protecting the Force and the Families of our service men and women.
So, 2022, what a year it has been.
In commending you all, I must remind you that your day to day affairs and the contribution you give at your respective levels must always be aligned to the strategic focus of the Force.
There have been many changes, challenges and successes including:

  • A new CDF and a new focus
  •  Lifting of Covid restrictions
  •  Opening of the Kumul Leadership Centre here in Murray Barracks and working and barrack accommodation in the FSB lines, in Goldie River and also in Lae
  •  Signing of Status of Forces agreement with France
  •  Formalising our relationship with the Wisconsin National Guard as part of the State Partnership Programme
  •  Our band performing in Japan
  •  Our participation in the Defence Rugby World cup in New Zealand by six of our female personnel.
  •  Delivery of the National General Election 2022 with provision of 56 vehicles, IT equipment and many more through election funds.
  •  Plus continuing to deliver our business as usual tasks of border security on land and at sea and assisting the police in security operations in the highlands.
Chief of Defence Force Maj Gen Mark Goina reviewing the parade on Dec 16 at Murray Barracks, Port Moresby. – Nationalpics by GYNNIE KERO

As I said, when I took command in December last year – my focus was to stabilise the force, to prepare our organisation for the future through managed and sustainable growth and most importantly deliver on our ‘Duty of Care’ for you, your families and our community.
And, as I stated, this will be done through five themed lines of effort; people, organisational reform, operational proficiency, infrastructure and nation Building.
And in doing this, and making it succeed, we must all at every level, know our Role, Purpose and Function as a Defence Force, including their own role, individual worth and professional excellence;
We must instill our Defence culture, whilst recognisng our own unique regional and tribal customs of which was displayed before the troops marched on.
We must have effective leadership at every level – being accountable and responsible for your actions and those of your superiors, peers and subordinates;
We must project to the people of Papua New Guinea and to our friends, partners, and those who may try to challenge us, high levels of competence, proficiency and authority – understanding our responsibilities as professionals – looking and acting the role; and
being smart in how we do things – having the agility of thought and organisational adaptability to solve problems and deliver.
And we must do these despite the restrictions we face in terms of capabilities and resources and the challenges faced through the security challenges faced from climate change and the rising sea levels affecting our inhabited Islands; Trans- National Crime and illegal exploitation of our maritime resources, pandemics and the changing geo-political threats both within our region and globally.
Again, to do this I have developed my five lines of effort.
My line of effort 1 is about you – our people. The aim is for the PNGDF to have a skilled, resilient and sustainable workforce able to deliver Defence outputs.
For this to happen we have to get the basics right for our uniformed personnel and their families. You must be well led. You must be well Paid. You must have the right clothing and equipment. You must have a healthy diet plan. You must have suitable living, training and working accommodation. Your training should be world class, and when the time comes to leave defence we must manage your transition to civilian life effectively.
Line of effort 2 is about organisational reform. The headquarters has already begun to review its structures, and the roles, functions and its effectiveness. The Capability Branch is working on what the force of the future, Defence 50, must look like and how we will get there using a strategic capability and resourcing plan.
Line of effort 3 concentrates on ensuring we develop and sustain effective and efficient logistics and other enablers and work on capability development focusing on enhancing the PNGDF’s operational capability, capacity and resilience.
And this includes strengthening our relationship with Department of Defence at all levels; and a complete overhaul of our personnel, logistic/combat service support, intelligence, training and capability delivery processes and procedures.
Line of effort 4 is all about infrastructure. We need to ensure all Defence infrastructure is fit for purpose, future proofed and designed to be easily maintained and sustainable.
My immediate focus here is on single serviceperson and family accommodation. We are working on a plan for new builds and refurbishment starting in Wewak and Manus.
Over the next three years we will develop Goldie River Training Depot by the relocation of the Long-Range Reconnaissance Unit and upgrade/expansion of to recruit training facilities and Warrior Wing. We will also do upgrades/rehabilitation of existing facilities and development of two more forward operating bases/forward patrol bases along the border and reestablish the trade training school.
The longer-term infrastructure work will include Hela Barracks, the Basilisk relocation, two border forward operating bases/forward patrol bases and Role 2 medical facilities in all camps.
My last line of effort, line of effort 5 is nation building. We will continue to support essential public services being delivered to our communities and environment through our civic action programmes.
National building command
We will establish a dedicated nation building command to oversee our effort in this area in conjunction with Department of Defence and all other Government organisations who will either support us or who we will support.
We will reinforce our relationship with the Papua New Guinea public through constant and regular engagement across the country, supporting local initiatives, delivering essential services, reinstituting the school cadet scheme, supporting the Youth Development Authority in reducing the youth bulge through training, education and employment initiatives, or by supporting the police in maintaining security for the people of PNG.
And lastly, we are now very close to establishing our Reserve Force and once created we utilise them to integrate the PNGDF with the people and communities of Papua New Guinea.
Now that you know why we are changing, how we are going to do it and what the outcomes will be, it is time to review what has happened in the last 12 months.
PNGDF’s task
The PNGDF is tasked by the Government to carry out four strategic tasks:
Defend Papua New Guinea (Sovereign protection)
Civil emergency assistance (Aid to civil power)
Nation building
International obligation
This means on the operational front, that we must continue to maintain border presences both for our land and maritime borders. We will continue to maintain our presence in the highlands as our responsibility to assist the police maintain good order, peace and security. This year, we have maintained those tasks in trying times and will continue to do so as part of our mandate.
We have seen the continued deployment of troops to maintain presence along our land border to address border security issues such as illegal migration, control of illicit substances and gun trade.
Our maritime capability, to monitor and secure our extensive exclusive economic zone has utilised our three patrol boats to great effect and has been further enhanced with the introduction of our new LCH, HMPNGS Cape Gloucester, which has greatly increased our maritime lift capability.
The Air Transport Wing has continued to push forward with operationalising our PAC 750 and to get back to operational status one of our Casas and the delivery of our Defence Aviation Authority documentation.
Our Engineering Battalion has again been kept busy as always with two currently ongoing projects; Madang-Baiyer road and the Finchaffen road. Our engineers have achieved significant milestones in the Madang-Baiyer project.
And, most significantly, our support to the national elections which saw over 2,000 personnel deployed to support the Electoral Commission and business as usual security tasks. A huge achievement. Well done to you all.
All this and we were still able to undertake professional development and training and to engage in exercises and activities with our international partners.
Our Joint Services College have continued to run training as usual. With the completion of the Senior Tactics Course this year and the continuity of the cadet training.
We are progressing well with reinforcing our officer corp with qualified and competent officers to carry this force forward and provide that command, management and leadership capability our force requires at the unit and sub unit levels.
And our leadership framework continues to run courses across the force to develop the leadership skills, reinforce the ethos and values and provide professional and personal development to our people to ensure we have a Defence Force that is the pride of our people.
This has had the boost of the opening of the state-of-the-art Kumul Leadership Centre, funded by New Zealand, allowing us to increase both the quality and numbers of leadership courses delivered.
We have also had personnel attend two UK strategic leadership programmes, along with future leaders of other government agencies, which reinforces the interoperability and whole-of-government approach directed by the current government and underpins the delivering of Vision 2050
International partners
Our relationship at the bilateral and international space remains a key component in achieving force development and domestic and regional security.
And, of course, with the ending of the travel restrictions imposed by Covid-19, we have seen a significant increase in engagement, both here in PNG and offshore.
We have had the opportunity to attend several international conference and activities including the South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting in Tonga, the Pacific Chiefs of Defence Services Leadership retreat in New Zealand and other activities in the United States, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.