Councillors shut Bogia office down

By DOROTHY MARK

WARD councillors in Bogia, Madang, forcefully closed down the office of their district administrator on Wednesday over their outstanding allowances.

Spokesman and ward 11 councillor in Yawar LLG Wilfred Muturam said the 39 ward councillors and their ward recorders nailed a piece of wood across the office of acting district administrator John Nobi for not signing claims of their outstanding allowances.

“Our outstanding allowances should be backdated to August 2011 and paid to us immediately because as of tomorrow (today) 4.06pm, we would no longer be recognised as ward councillors,” Muturam said.

He said they tried to discuss the issue with Nobi on Tuesday.

However, they were frustrated when they realised that he was not present so they nailed the piece of wood across the office door. 

Muturam claimed the outstanding amount owed to the ward councillors was nearly K200,000 and they were more frustrated since yesterday was the day for the issue of writs.

He said the ward councillors demanded responsible authorities at the provincial government level including the provincial administrator Bernard Lange travel to Bogia and address the issue immediately.

Several attempts made to get Nobi’s comment were unsuccessful yesterday.

Meanwhile, Madang provincial treasury’s female examiner, who was severely beaten by a senior officer over issues of outstanding travelling allowances, could not process cheque payments for Madang provincial government and districts.

Cheques were also not printed following the incident last Wednesday.