Govt behind in payment

THE Morobe provincial government is behind in its payments to the Morobe University Centre by K500,000.
It was supposed to annually fund the centre with K100,000.
The centre was established in 2005 and Morobe had paid K100,000 initially.
“Since then, there has been no funding,” director Kensol Rui said yesterday.
Governor Luther Wenge and University of Papua New Guinea Vice-Chancellor Prof Ross Hynes had signed a  memorandum of agreement in 2005 in Lae for the establishment of the centre at the old public library.
Under the agreement, the UPNG would provide academics and programmes and equipment while the provincial government would co-fund the centre.
Despite the lack of funding, the first degree graduate was former Morobe acting administrator Patilias Gamato in 2009.
Last week, Lae district administrator Buds Botikie graduated at UPNG with a bachelor in business management. He was one of six who graduated through courses offered at the centre.
Mr Gamato is now attached to UPNG main campus at Waigani for further studies to gain his masters degree while Mr Botikie said he would follow.
Mr Rui is encouraging the public and companies to enter into partnership programmes “to enrich their human resources capability and capacity to align them with the current trend of socio-economic development”.
“UPNG has made it possible through the community outreach arrangement to provide an opportunity for all of us to access and utilise to enrich our mental capacity.
“It’s more affordable because while we are still working, we can access the programnes at our own time at an affordable cost near our doorsteps,” he said.