Portal created to pay service providers

FINANCE Minister Sir John Pundari says the department has created a portal to process payments for service providers.
He was responding to questions from East Sepik Governor Allan Bird on the malware attack on the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).
Bird said the problem had been resolved and central agencies were back operating the system.
But he said the Bank of Papua New Guinea was refusing to accept cheques generated by the Finance Department.
Bird asked Sir John what action the department was taking to rectify the situation and also to prevent such attacks on the government finance system.
Sir John said the attack on the IFMS was an act of treason, saying the system dealt with billions of kina.
He said there were temporary alternatives in place.
Sir John also said they were not able to get the top officials of the BPNG to explain.
But he added that the BPNG also wanted to protect its system.
Sir John said the department was considering opening an account with Bank South Pacific “subject to legal advice”. The department was recently hit with a ransomware attack locking away millions of kina in foreign aid money.