Contractors who have worked on school infrastructure in Port Moresby are happy that the contract audit they have been waiting for has arrived in the hands of Education Minister Hon. Nick Kuman.
They wanted to thank Mr Kuman for reinforcing the good work of previous education minister James Marape. Although they have expressed their happiness for the progress made, they are hoping for a good outcome of the assessment of the report and expect good news before the end of this week. Chairman of the NCD education services working committee, Jeremiah Ninkama, revealed last week that the issue of contractors not getting paid goes five years back to 2008 and about six of the company owners who had been waiting had died during their five years of waiting. Most, if not all, of the contractors have been forced to close their company accounts and owners are left with debts to other companies, banks and other private lenders. The group was formed in 2009 after they realised that the K250 million funds that were allocated for their payment had been diverted to other projects even though work had been done already. "We are happy to have allowed the audit process to take course so that the genuine contractors can be paid because we have waited for a long time now and need to be paid," Mr Ninkama said. He stated that there are three lots of contractors who have been waiting for payment since 2008 who were included in the audit. The contractors hope for a good outcome to be determined by end of next week. Mr Nikama said if the final report keeps on being delayed, all the contractors will go ahead and lock down all the classrooms and libraries, including the National Library and Archives building, and all the staff houses they have worked on. In response to earlier comments by the Education Secretary, Michael Tapo regarding the contracts being invalid because he had not signed them or was not aware of them. "These are all official documents and we work according to the agreements," they said. "All the contracts were signed by delegated officers from the departments to take charge of and award contract. They are your officers representing you and in the position to sign the contracts.” They said the project manager does not necessarily need to go to the secretary to sign the contracts because he is a delegated officer to take charge of the funds. Comments are closed.
|
Papua New Guinea Breaking NewsPapua New Guinea daily News updates Let Your Voice be heard: Submit your news articles, commentaries, letters , Photos, Media Releases etc to us on this email: pngfacts@gmail.com
Mining & PetroleumTop Links |