Job vacancies at DOW - Department of Works - Papua New Guinea

The Department of Works (DOW) is the Papua New Guinea Government’s implementing agency for infrastructure in the country. It is the biggest and one of the oldest government organizations in the country starting as the Office of Works and Supply during the pre-independence era. Being the biggest is due to the fact that it is the only department in the government that can boast having an office in every province in the country all linked together through the wide area network.

DOW is responsible for maintaining approximately a total of 8,738.46 kms of roads throughout the country. This figure stands as of 2007. Of this total, 5,755.20km are graveled, 2,779.48km are sealed and the remaining 523.35km are inaccessible due to factors such as weather conditions etc. The current transport infrastructure priorities are found in the Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) and the National Transport Development (NTDS) plan and can be summarized as follows:

• Road maintenance – the need to ensure that the existing road and bridge networks are maintained to a trafficable level.
• New roads will be considered once the economic climate improves.
• The DOW is responsible for ensuring implementation but the majority of actual design and construction will be undertaken by the private sector. The Department will concentrate on supervision and quality control.
• The Highlands Highway – shall remain the main priority under the current maintenance and rehabilitation policy of the Government.
• Other major national highways including the Magi, Hiritano, Buluminski, New Britain and Sepik Highways shall also be included for priority maintenance as funding becomes available.
• To ensure ongoing maintenance of priority highways is essential that counterpart funding for donor projects is available to reduce delays in implementing the approved annual work plans.
• Implementation of District Services Improvement Program (DSIP).
• Implementation of the District Roads Improvement Program (DRIP).
• Ongoing implementation of existing contracted programs.