Lae market pays back to city council after four years

THE Lae Main Market has paid its first remittance to the city council after four years.
The new market management headed by coordinator Elijah Kelamu and supervisor Gou Sine Tabaray had on Tuesday collected and paid K4057 into the Lae City Council accounts.
“Our management was installed by a council decision following recommendations from a recent audit report,” Tabaray said.
“When we came in, we saw things all over the place.
“There are ticket butts all over the place but there was no money.
“The market has been operating but we don’t know where the money went to during all these years.
“But yesterday for the first time since our management came in, we paid K4057 to the city council’s account. This is good news for Lae residents.”
Tabaray said the money they collected were from gate takings and from the number of bags the vendors brought into the market.
“We have more than 200 vendors selling their food here,” he said. “We collect between K3 and K5 from them, depending on their bag sizes.”
Kelamu said they had plans to transform the market into one of the best markets in the country.
“Our immediate plan is to provide a better service to the market users and ensure all money collected will be remitted back to the council,” he said.
Kelamu said there was a need to collect accurate data so that funding could be secured to upgrade the market.
Meanwhile, Lae MP John Rosso has spoken highly of the achievements of the new market management who delivered revenue to the council.
“I would like to commend the Morobe provincial government audit committee and the acting Lae city manager for implementing the recommendations of the audit report and under the new acting city manager Kissu Lucas,” Rosso said.
“The Lae City Council operations are being overhauled to ensure transparency and accountability in light of the many allegations levelled against its operations.”
The market is estimated to generate about K9000 per day or up to K250,000 per month.