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Surprised at clampdown
By HENLY TAKA
FINANCE companies are saying that
they were surprised to read about the Government’s move to stop
public servants from borrowing money from them because of the high
interest rates they charge.
They claim they have not been given prior notice about the
Government’s move to clamp down on public servants accessing their
services.
Most of them said they first learnt about the issue in the
newspaper and raised concerns about how they were going to recoup
millions of kina owed to them by public servants.
Joe Alex, an officer with finance company Easy Loans, asked how
the Government expected his company to chase clients in the public
service to repay their outstanding loans.
Mr Alex said Easy Loan had given out between K500,000 and K600,000
in loans to public servants.
He said if the Government put a stop to the repayment arrangements
through pay deductions, his company would be faced with a very
difficult task of recouping the loans.
He also said no notices were served on them regarding the move and
he was disappointed that the companies were not given enough time
to recover their monies.
Wayne Honeysett, credit manager for Kina Finance Limited said it
was business as usual for them because they had not received any
official notification from the Government.
Mr Honeysett said they read about it only in the newspaper and
until such time they get proper notification, they would treat the
news as hearsay.
He said the announcement by Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari seemed to
be one of the many knee jerk Government decisions with wider
ramifications, so they will wait for a formal notification.
Mr Honeysett added that a lot of public servants had home loans
with Kina Finance so the public servants might lose their houses
if the announcement by Mr Lupari comes into effect.
Other finance companies contacted by The National said they were
not going to comment on the decision.
 
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