Money owed must be paid up

OP/ED

Finance Secretary Gabriel Yer and Treasury Secretary Simon Tosali have been slapped with contempt of court charges. They will appear in the National Court soon ( a date is yet to be set), but when they do appear, they will have to explain why they were not able to pay a sum close to K12 million to property owners in Chimbu, in a matter that the same court had awarded damages 19 years ago.

A group of village leaders representing the clan in the legal proceedings is in Port Moresby and together with their lawyer, they have served the contempt of court charges against the two men, in an effort to force them make the payment, which they claim is well over due.

The action by this group has come about because of the delay by the state to pay for damages or destructions caused by its agents. This is just one of the many judgments that the state has suffered in court cases involving citizens in the country.

Lawyers have informed this newspaper that judgments suffered by the state in court cases similar to this has run into millions of kina and the claimaints, mainly ordinary villagers have been waiting for years.

And like the recent arrivals from Chimbu, there are many who have come into the city and are waiting to get their payments from the state. Many of these people, who are very respectable community leaders in their own communities have come to the big city, going every day to their lawyers’ offices, or to the Office of the Solicitor General, the Attorney General, the Finance Department, the Treasury and the Vulupindi Haus, trying to find out what had happened to their money and when they will get the cheques. For many of these people, they have been reduced to paupers, living on handouts and some have passed away.

Joining these group of people are those that are waiting to be paid out their entitlements by the state. In the city today, there are hundreds of ex- service men who are also trying to get their money. At the back of Taurama barracks, 4-mile in Port Moresby, 2-Mile at Goldie, Bumayong in Lae and at the back of Moem barracks, former PNG Defence Force soldiers have erected homes and are waiting for their payouts. They are not alone, there are former policemen and Correctional officers who are waiting. Many have passed away and their families are carrying on the fight.

This is not all. We read in the newspapers about public servants who are still waiting for their employer to pay them their allowances and awards that they won through industrial tribunals. These are ordinary Papua New Guineans who are finding it hard to make ends meet and do need the top up in their wages.

Papua New Guineans are not deaf, dumb and stupid. In the years from 2002 to 2005, PNG’s economy was not doing too good. The kina was battling against the major currencies of the world, and the reserve at the Central Bank was at very low levels, threatening the country with bankruptcy. As sensible people, they waited for things to improve.

Today they are told that the economy has improved so much, there are millions of kina parked in Trust Accounts at the banks. The question the people are asking now is why the long delay.

Accountants and economists argue that when the government pays out huge amounts of money, inflation will go up. And the government is mindful of that. High inflation is the least we need here and we agree. But when ordinary people are allowed to suffer unnecessarily like this, then the question about good governance comes up. There must be a way to settle these awards and claims.

One way is to make payments in tranches and every year until all these outstanding amounts are settled.