Con artist walks away with K1,000

HUONVILLE Primary School in Lae, Morobe, paid K1,000 to a person claiming to represent Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu’s office sent to collect cheque processing fees.
School board chairman Robin Kunai said an individual named Steven Boting approached the school administration and wanted the monies before treasury would process the cheque the governor had pledge to Huonville to rebuild school facilities.
The school needed funding last year to build temporary classrooms for students to continue classes after the Lae city health authority condemned their buildings unsafe.
The school held a board meeting and paid Boting K1,000.
Saonu when contacted, told The National that he had not instructed anyone to collect fees on his behalf or using the governor’s office.
Saonu said so-called middle men involved in such actions would be found and dealt with by the law.
Kunai said Boting caught them off guard soon after the Morobe government, through its 2019 budget, had allocated K500,000 to Huonville Primary School.
“Boting told us to pay the fees to ensure he executed the first portion (K100,000) of the K500,000 to be processed by treasury so we paid him K500,” Kunai said.
“Boting approached us for the second time and requested cheque printing fee and we paid another K500.
“After several weeks, we never received the funding and Boting could not be found.”
Kunai said after several weeks, education reform coordinator Haring Qoreka approached them.
“We explained to Qoreka what Boting demanded and school paid him K1,000 and were yet to have the funds processed.”
Kunai said Qoreka was able to facilitate the release of the funds within two weeks.