Maipakai: New way to pay members

THE Department of Inter-Government Relations has come up with a formula to pay former provincial assembly members, Minister Mark Maipakai said.
He said this in response to questions raised by the Sandaun Governor Simon Solo in parliament last Friday.
Solo asked if the minister could explain if the K30 million appropriated in 2010 to pay members of the provincial government had been paid and how much was each person paid.
Solo further asked if the minister could explain the formula used to pay the members and why some provinces such as Chimbu were paid higher than the others.
Maipaikai promised to give details later but stated that the department had established a formula for the payments which would be made shortly.
He said there were many issues the department had to sort out before all payments were made.
He indicated that some provincial governments had decided to take the matter to court while some had lodged claims which were not eligible with the department.
He said all the issues required legal opinions and the payments had to be delayed because of that.
Allocations were specifically for the respective 19 provincial government members affected by the reform from 1992 to 1997.