Locked out

By LUKE KAMA
PNG Customs Service employees have been denied access to their rented office in Port Moresby – the latest State entity to be locked out by the landlord.
Chief Commissioner Ray Paul said it was “not good news” to the start of 2018 but denied the lockout yesterday had anything to do with rentals.
“Our rentals is okay. But we have got some rearrangements we need to do. We should get that done soon and the office should be opened again,” Paul said.
He said the shutting down of rented government offices was not a new thing. “Everybody (State agencies) has been locked out of their offices,” he said, referring to pre-Christmas lockouts of several government offices due to non-payment of rents.
The office of the PNG Customs Service, one of the State’s biggest revenue earners, is located at the GBC office complex, Steamships Compound, Poreporena Freeway, Gordon.
Paul said the closure of the office would not disrupt their operations.
“The important thing is that all of our business is as usual and there is no disruption,” he said.
“Our checks on cargo and anything coming into the country is as usual and there is no disruption.
“So we should be alright. We have to get in as soon as possible.”
Paul told The National yesterday that cases of property owners locking out staff of government departments and agencies from their offices over the non-payment of rentals had been experienced over the past year.
Office leases for State agencies are dealt with by the Department of Personnel Management and rentals are paid by the Finance Department. A source within Customs said staff had not been told why they had been locked out.