The PNG census has been plagued by long delays, administrative issues and financial shortfalls. Photo: Supplied/ Papua New Guinea Census
Papua New Guinea's long-awaited census has been extended this week after enumerators had failed to cover the entire country.
The census is critical for PNG which has not conducted such an exercise in the past 11 years, during which time the population is believed to have doubled.
One PNG academic, told the ABC last month the "census is on a path to failure", and no one knows the country's poopulation is.
According to the ABC report, since the count began, it had been plagued by long delays, administrative issues and financial shortfalls.
Earlier this year, medical school professor Glen Mola said PNG's population increase, estimated at 300,000 a year, was a ticking time bomb for the country.
RNZ Pacific's PNG correspondent Scott Waide said the count was due to have finished last Sunday, when everything was to be completed.
"Unfortunately, that's not the case. The Minister [of Administrative Services Richard Masere] released a statement on the weekend stating that...many areas are yet to be counted."
Waide said no specific new end date has been made public.
He said there are significant difficulties in movement and access in Highlands Provinces, such as Enga and Western, wile "they have outstanding bills for helicopters that they haven't settled yet [and]outstanding payments for the workers."
"There's a lot of complaints around the payment of allowances and it's an ongoing issue that hasn't really been resolved yet."
The enumerators were to all be issued tablets on which to collect the census information, but Waide said these devices did not arrive on time to be pressed into service.
With the delays and the gaps in the collection Waide fears the quality of the information gathered, which had been expected to point to a population well above 10 million, may not be that accurate.
Waide said that Masere has been publicly critical of the head of the National Statistics' Office, who has been overseeing the census.
"He's sent off a letter that was leaked, being very critical of the amount of work put in, and the effort by the Census Office.
"He's also acknowledged the difficulties that the Census Office is facing, but politicians can see something but the reality on the ground is that the money didn't come quick enough.
"The preparations were poor, and a lot of people didn't get counted."