Pay rise for village court officials

 VILLAGE court officials throughout the country will receive major increases in their monthly allowances for the first time in 40 years.
Under the new payroll system, chairpersons will receive K460 a month (currently K32), deputy chairpersons – K414 (K29), magistrates and clerks – K372 (K26) and peace officers – K335 (K24).
The good news came during the official launching of the payroll system by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday at the Department of Personnel Management.
The first two districts to be put on the new payroll system were Sinasina-Yonggomugl, in Chimbu and Ialibu-Pangia, in Southern Highlands.
O’Neill said it was the first time for the government to formally reward and recognise village court officials for their efforts to maintain order and normalcy in the communities.
“There are currently 1,600 village courts, with 17,000 officials and by the time it is completed it will be one of the largest single payrolls in the country,” he said.
O’Neill said most of these people go without any recognition or any financial support from government despite working tirelessly to serve their respective communities.
He said allowances would be paid directly to the officials’ bank accounts so they would not have to travel long distance to the district headquarters to collect cash payments.
Attorney-General and Justice Minister Kerenga Kua said it was important that village court officials were properly remunerated.
“They play a very important role and I wonder why it took us 40 long years to come to this point,” he said.
Kua urged provinces that were slow in completing data collection to cooperate to implement the system.