Rosso questions city council on K30mil funding

THE Lae City Council has been paid almost K30 million by stevedoring company Riback Stevedores in the past four years but there is nothing to show for it, Lae MP John Rosso says.
“Riback paid nearly K30 million in the past four years to the Lae City Council with nothing to show for it,” he said.
“They should tell me where that money is. Riback used to pay K400,000 a month to the city council.”
Rosso said Riback was now paying K200,000 a month but he had stopped payments to the city council because “a lot of things are happening”.
“We have to put a stop to it until the audit process is finished and then we will know where we can spend the money,” he said.
Rosso said the matter was also covered in the recent audit of which a final report would be made public.
He said the council had employed more than 500 people when it should have a maximum of 300.
“Many things are not right so we have to put a stop to it,” he said.
Rosso was explaining yesterday why he had been involved in the affairs of the city council after  Mayor Koim Trilu Leahy questioned why he was interfering with the council’s operations.
Rosso said as the Lae MP, he had the right to intervene in the council’s affairs because the new Lae City Authority Act gave him the powers to do so.
“We have taken hire cars off the city council,” he said.
“The Lae city council is a revenue-generating entity so we can’t wait for the provincial government to give us funding all the time.
“The council needed to streamline its operations. They haven’t been collecting revenue.”