Contractors to be paid last quarter wages

MORE than 300 local contractors will be paid their last quarter wages by the Lae city council and district administration in November.
Lae district accountant Joe Aprepa said the workers were contractors who were paid on a quarterly basis with funds from the Morobe provincial administration.
Mr Aprepa said the workers had already been paid for the first three quarters.
“The district treasury office acts as a facilitator for the workers payments,” he said.
The contractors were clients of the city council and the Lae district administration.
They had been paid their wages for the first three quarters and the treasury office was awaiting funds for the last quarter payment to be done, he said.
Mr Aprepa said that the payments processed by the treasury office were done according to invoices received from the contractors.
The contractors had earlier this month fronted up at the Lae district administration’s treasury office demanding unpaid wages for the past nine months.
The contractors claimed they had been given empty promises by the provincial and district authorities.
Some of the work they had done included cutting grass, patching potholes, clearing old and new trees and maintaining the road.