Pangtel excesses
FORMER employees of Pangtel have leaked documents to the media which suggest impropriety and financial irregularities in the organisation.
As regulator, Pangtel’s role is vital in the interconnectivity issue now raging between Telikom and Digicel, with ICCC now asked to intervene and resolve the dispute.
But Pangtel is mired in problems of its own, with the management having no board to report to, the appointment of acting director-general Charles Punaha being questioned in court, and leaking of the documents suggesting financial irregularities.
Three officers were suspended for raising questions about hefty payments for senior executives’ entitlements.
Chief accountant Winston Nelson has been suspended six months ago for raising the alarm over irregular payments to executive staff.
The payments in question are for past, present and future entitlements, advance payments on other entitlements and even ex gratia payments.
Bank statements from Pangtel’s drawing account No.1000489963 obtained by The National, show that in the month of August 2007 alone, three executives paid themselves K700,000 in back-dated salaries and entitlements. The officers paid themselves K250,000 as their outstanding contracts.
In another, chief licensing officer Joe Kim was promoted to director engineering standards in July 2007 and paid a hefty K334,336.31 last Aug 28 in backdated salaries, entitlements, allowances and even gratuity.
Also in the same month, bank records show that Mr Punaha authorised K500,000 to pay for a new fleet of vehicles when the old fleet was reportedly not phased out as yet.
Mr Punaha acknowledged approving the payments and reprimanding six officers including Mr Nelson for various disciplinary offences such as insubordination, for not implementing lawful directions, and incompetence.
“Yes. I have suspended six officers through the in-house disciplinary process we have available. They have been charged and allowed to reply and those whose response was unsatisfactory have been sacked,” Mr Punaha said.
On the question of gratuity payments which are supposed to be paid after an officer cease employment, Mr Punaha said it was done in accordance with the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement with the PNG Communications Workers Union.
“We have this agreement with the union and we pay gratuity and other entitlements when officers complete one contract and sign another one because we do not want to accrue financial liability,” Mr Punaha said.
He said when a contract officer signed an employment contract, there was no guarantee of continuity when it expired and that had been the reason for such payments.
“The main reason for paying such entitlements and gratuity is because there is no security on continuity of employment and we do not want to risk building up liability yearly,” he added.
On the case of Mr Nelson’s suspension, Mr Punaha said he (Nelson) has responded to his charges and the matter was before the tribunal (disciplinary) to make a recommendation to him to act.
Nation Stories