K211mil on the way: Kombra

By LORRAINE JIMAL
AN outstanding K211 million in Government tuition free fees (TFF) is to be deposited into school accounts before school starts, Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra says.
Kombra responded to The National yesterday about the outstanding TFF for last year, saying funds were released late last year which delayed the whole process for the funds to reach the schools.
“We have in our Bank of Papua New Guinea trust account K211 million as of Friday, so these funds will be processed this week, and hopefully this will be deposited into school accounts before the school starts on Jan 31,” Kombra said.
“(Now) we are working on the K211 million we have in the trust account so the schools can pay their debts they have with the service providers and other needs as soon as possible.”
He said the Finance and Treasury departments were working on the K316 million (for this year) and as soon as they received the money, they would process it to the school accounts. National Education Council chairman Michael Ova said the money released on a timely manner enabled schools to settle their debts before concentrating on new projects, facilities and developments. Mercy Secondary School principal Alexander Marcus, in Wewak, East Sepik, said administration also needed to pay for electricity and water bills, food at the students’ mess, school transportation and security.