Leave fares ‘mess’ still unresolved

OUTSTANDING leave entitlements of K1.6 million since 2007 led to further delays in paying the entitlements last year to teachers in Morobe province, it has been revealed.
Provincial programme adviser for education, Murika Bihoro, said yesterday that in 2007, all teachers were issued with airfares to travel for their leave and as a result the provincial government “blew up K1.6 million”.
“We went over our budget requirements and as a result accumulated an outstanding debt of K1.6 million just to fly teachers to their home province for their leave,” he said.
“Because of this, it greatly affected teachers’ leave entitlements for 2008 and 2009.”
He said that because of the outstanding debt, some funds for teachers leave entitlements for the two years had to be “soaked into repaying the debt”.
As a result, the administration and the division had to resort to cheap transportation to transport teachers for their leave last year.
Mr Bihoro said that the Morobe provincial administration through the education division managed to repay most of the outstanding debt.
“The outstanding amount of K1.6 million has now decreased to K161, 919 and I believe that it should be settled by June of this year,” he said.