K14m claim, rejected

 By JAMES APA GUMUNO

WESTERN Highlands provincial government would not pay K14 million claim lodged by some people from Jiwaka region.

Provincial works and transport chairman Thomas Mek said this last Wednesday during the provincial assembly meeting in Mt Hagen where they passed K125.3 million budget of the province.

He told the assembly members including Governor Tom Olga that the same people from Jiwaka, who usually lodged unnecessarily claims from the provincial government during the regime of Paias Wingti and the late Fr Robert Lak, were still doing it.

Mek said that as chairman of Works and Transport from Jiwaka, he was put under pressure from the claimants.

He said that no matter how hard these claimants tried, they would not be paid.

He said the provincial executive council had stopped all unnecessarily claims.

Mek said that he was confused what sort of work the claimants had carried out in Jiwaka.

He said that K4,797,000, allocated by the provincial assembly for infrastructure developments in this year’s budget, would be used on various projects identified in the province.

Mek said the money would not be used to pay for unnecessarily claims on road works.

Meanwhile, he said alcohol black markets in Jiwaka were booming like nobody’s business.

He said people were selling beer everywhere.

He said that this had contributed to escalating law and order problems.

He said they needed the presence of a police mobile squad to be based in Jiwaka and get rid of these illegal activities.

“I do not know may be we are sharing border with Chimbu so that is why people want to drink homebrew every day,” he said.

He added that it was a concern and police including leaders at all levels need to work together and address it.