Councillors want outstanding allowances paid before polls

THE 34 councillors from Nebilyer local level government in Western Highlands wants their overdue allowances paid before the new council election is conducted.
The councillors in a press conference said yesterday in Mt Hagen that they would boycott the election if their monthly allowances for the past three years was not paid.
Councillor Lame Kepa said they were mandated leaders like the national parliamentarians but received no recognition from the government.
“We stay with the people and lead to solve all sorts of problems happening in our communities, but we are not on the payroll and we want our lousy monthly allowances to be paid,” he said.
Kepa said had not received their normal monthly allowance for 42 months and they wanted their outstanding allowances to be paid before the issue of writs of the new council election next month.
He said if they didn’t receive their outstanding allowances, there would not be any council election in Nebilyer.
Councillor Micheal Mission said the councillors wasted a lot of money and resources to get the mandate from the people.
“If our MPs are getting more than K14,000 a fortnight, what about us, the councillors, we are the third arm of the government and dealing with people’s problems almost every day,” he said.
He said they had asked to have their allowances paid before the elections.