Kouza: State pay system “erratic”

 Lae MP Loujaya Kouza says the Government pay system has been erratic since last September and points to a far-worse state of affairs than made out to be.

She told The National yesterday that the parliamentary payroll, which included her regular fortnightly pay and that of her staff, was affected. Since September 2015, there has been no money to pay workers,” Kouza said.

“What has been happening is that cheques for gross salaries of workers have been raised but bounced in the bank.”

Kouza said for the first fortnight of this year, she had been paid on a non– pay week, and she had not been paid since then.

“The story is that the Government has no money,” she said.

“Some workers are coming to work, others are not coming to work.”

Kouza said she had been told that workers were only receiving their net salaries and not their gross which included superannuation payments.

“They are hoping that a miracle will happen and they will receive a backdated lump sum,” she said.

“For the last fortnight, the cheque for these net salaries bounced, meaning all of us did not get paid.”