Justice Dept needs K170 million to complete court house

By LORRAINE JIMAL
CHIEF Justice Sir Gibbs Salika says his department will need K170 million to complete the National and Supreme Courts complex in Port Moresby next year.
He said the building was 70 per cent completed on Friday.
“I gave the estimated budget of K170 million for the building and we hope that the Government can give us the K170 million to complete the building. If we are to given the money, the building will be completed next year,” he said.
Sir Gibbs said last year they asked for K200 million-plus but they only received K70 million which was not enough to complete the building.
“So we are hoping that the Government can give us K170 million this year to complete it,” he said.
“It will be a wired building so there are a lot of power lines, IT wires yet to fit in first in order to be completed. A lot of the equipment that needed to be sourced out of Papua New Guinea are not necessarily from Australia but needed to be taken in from Europe, Germany England, Dutch, Canada, United States and all those developed countries.”
He said though they had not consistently paid the contractors, they had continued to work with whatever necessary equipment they had as they knew they would still get paid in the end.
Sir Gibbs said if K170 million came in full, the complex would be completed next year and, if not, in 2023.