About Provincial Registries

The National Court has provincial registries apart from the main registry based in Waigani- Port Moresby.   These are established and operated in the main provincial head quarters . Not every province has a registry. The decision to establish a provincial registry and in which province is a decision made by   the Chief Justice in consultation with the   Judges . As at the date of writing this note, 5^th November 2012 , there are 10 provincial registries.

Registries

They are     Kokopo and Kimbe in the islands region, Lae, Madang and Wewak in the Northern coastal part of the mainland and Mount Hagen , Wabag , Goroka, Kundiawa and Mendi in the highlands region.

Sub-registries

Apart from the provincial registries we also have what we call as “sub-registries” which are very small set up in some provinces where we employ a skeleton staff to carry out some registry functions. At the time of this write up, there are 4 sub registries. These are : Alotau , Kavieng, Buka and Lorengau.

Decisions have been made to upgrade Alotau, Kavieng and Buka to   Registry status at the start of next year -2013.

Resident Judges

The provincial registries have resident Judges or Acting Judges in provincial capitals and they deal with cases on a daily basis for the circuit periods. The larger registries have more than one Judge and there is a maximum of three Judges in these larger registry locations. They are Mt Hagen, Lae Kokopo while Goroka , although a smaller registry has two resident Judges. Others have one Judge each.

The Staff

The registries have staff employed to carry out all functions of a registry and its support functions. They have registry officers, court room officers ( interpreters and court attendants) , judges private staff ( associates and private secretaries) , court reporting officers, sheriff officers ( enforce civil court orders), a Librarian and a administration officer to look after the funding provided to these locations periodically. These are apart from miscellaneous staff like cleaning, driving and security staff who also form part of the entire provincial establishment staff.

The provincial registries are headed by a Assistant Registrar who is the provincial manager for the establishment who works under the Judges. The required qualification of this officer is that he or she must be a qualified lawyer with a law degree and be admitted to practice as a lawyers by the Law Society of Papua New Guinea. All other staff apart from Judges private staff , report to this officer.

Each section officer from the province also reports to their specific divisional managers at Waigani in their area of speciality apart from reporting to the Assistant Registrar.

Assistant Registrar , as the most senior officer oversees the entire operations of the province   and the staff report to him/her.

In some locations, we have other senior persons who not met the required qualifications acting in the position due to one reason or another. In the sub registries , the officers in-charge are not qualified lawyers.

Current Establishment Managers

The provincial Assistant Registrar’s   and sub registry officers who can be contacted are as follows:

	PROVINCIAL CAPITAL	MANAGER		PROVINCIAL CAPITAL	MANAGER
1	Mendi	Mr. Vincent Bailey	8	Lae	Mr. Raphael Bongnabul
2	Hagen	Ms. Maria Kunjil	9	Kimbe	Ms. Senas Wohwiehembe
3	Wabag	Mr. Peter Nend	10	Kokopo	Ms. June Micka
4	Kundiawa	Mr. Philip Kaumba	11	Alotau	Mr. Eric Kiso
5	Goroka	Ms. Poning Makap	12	Kavieng	Mr. Benjamin Kepas
6	Madang	Ms. Anzack Korua	13	Buka	Mr. Timothy Holi
7	Wewak	Mr.	14	Lorengau	Ms. Niachalau Posakei

As to the type of registry business the registries do , you can be able to read about them when you go to each locations on this website. Their contacts are also available on these locations.

 

Deputy Registrar – National Court