Ruby Zarriga is a retired civil servant from Papua New Guinea. She was born in New Hanover, in the

New Ireland Province New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (german: Neu-Mecklenburg), and Nova Hibernia, is the northeasternmost province of Papua New Guinea. Physical geography The largest island of the province is New Ireland. Also part of the province a ...

. She completed a bachelor of arts degree in social work from the

University of Papua New Guinea The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) is a university located in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. It was established by ordinance of the Australian administration in 1965. This followed the Currie Commission which had enquired ...

in 1987, and on graduating joined the public service. She worked in a variety of government agencies covering welfare, community planning and training. In 2004 she received an Australian Development Scholarship and in 2005 and 2006 she studied at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

in Canberra, Australia. She completed a master's degree in management and returned to Papua New Guinea to the Department of National Planning and Monitoring. She was appointed First Assistant Secretary, Sectoral Planning and Programming Division. In September 2011, Zarriga was arrested and charged with conspiracy to defraud the State. The arrest was in relation to a K10 million grant that was paid by the Department of National Planning to Kokopo businessman,

Eremas Wartoto Eremas Wartoto is a Papua New Guinean businessman, based in Kokopo, PNG. He founded the airline Travel Air, based in Madang, PNG, and is part of the Sarakolok West Transport (SWT) Group, owned by Wartoto. Travel Air flies from Hoskins, Lae, Madang, ...

, to set up an airline, at the time that Zarriga was acting secretary. Zarriga retired in 2021 after working in the Department of National Planning and Monitoring for 32 years.

Personal life

Zarriga was married to Reverend Megghen Zarriga, who was shot and killed in 2002. The couple had two daughters together.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zarriga, Ruby Living people University of Papua New Guinea alumni Australian National University alumni Papua New Guinean women civil servants Year of birth missing (living people) People from New Ireland Province