People paid for doing nothing, says Duma

By ELIAS LARI  
THERE are more than 300 people who are being paid by the Western Highlands provincial government for doing nothing, Hagen MP William Duma says.
Duma told a gathering in Mt Hagen on Saturday that because of this practice, basic services were not reaching the people.
Duma, who is the Minister for State Enterprise and Public Investment, said that those people who were on the payroll of the provincial government were stealing public funds.
“Those people who are travelling in car convoys and clapping at public gatherings are the ones that are on the payroll.”
He said leaders like Governor Paias Wingti needed to look into the provincial administration and take immediate actions because his people were suffering.
Duma said that annually K5 million for each of the open electorates of Mul-Baiyer, Dei, Tambul-Nebilyer and Hagen was paid by the national government to the provincial government through the provincial support improvement programme (PSIP).
Duma said the four open MPs only used the K10 million from their district services improvement programme (DSIP) to deliver services to the people while the K20 million belonging to the four open electorates was with the provincial government.
“This K20 million is supposed to be used by Paias Wingti to help fund provincial and feeder roads in each electorate.
“But I do not see roads constructed and maintained with the K20 million that belongs to the open MPs.”
Duma said in his Hagen electorate the provincial government was not supporting him with the K5 million.
He said the reason why the people of Hagen electorate were missing out was because of ghost names on the payroll.
“There more than 300 people on the payroll who are consuming public funds and I do not know if the provincial government is aware of it.