Businesses still chasing millions owed to them by Govt

BUSINESSES are still chasing up the millions of kina owed to them by the Government for goods and services they had provided years ago, an official says.
PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ian Tarutia told The National that the amount owed to the private sector was around K800 million at the end of last October.
Tarutia said businesses had expected some of those outstanding payments to be paid last year when the Government raised funds through its Covid-19 bonds.
“As far as we are aware, not all bills have been settled,” he said.
“Business houses are still chasing up payments.
“As a consequence, a number of businesses have closed and workers laid off.
“Some of the debts date back to (November) 2018 when the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit was held in PNG.
“The PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry respectfully requests, on behalf of its affiliates and members, that due attention and consideration be given this year to debts legally owed, to be paid.”
Port Moresby chamber of chamber and industry president Rio Fiocco told The National that the Government had been making an effort to settle debts owed to businesses in Port Moresby lately.
“I believe they have been paying quite a number of arrears for rentals and goods and services supplied, but there is still a vetting process and that process is still ongoing and hopefully will continue,” he said.
Fiocco said the difficulty from the Government’s point of view was that many of the agreements were not properly documented.
“I think you are going to find a lot of people will end up being very disappointed in the end, particularly if they had a private arrangement with someone in a department to supply goods or services, with nothing in writing or not complying with the National Procurement Commission rules,” he said.