Savings, loans society to operate

The Papua New Guinea Nurses Savings and Loans Society will start operating next month, a senior official says.
General secretary Gibson Siune told The National yesterday that the Nurses Savings and Loans Society would cater for the needs of its members for things such as housing and insurance which had not been captured in their conditions of employment with the Health Department.

“The association was established with the intention to help and improve the social and economic well-being of the nurses and to continue to strive to improve and maintain nursing standards in the country,” he said.“We see that we need to support nurses training and development, support nurses symposiums.
“Nurses having housing issues just like any other public servants where housing is not a condition of employment.”
Siune said while conditions for nurses were challenging, the expectation was for them to perform at optimum levels at all times.
He said these hardships and lack of support for nurses had prompted the association to start the savings and loans society to support its members.
“The society will come into effect on Aug 1,” he said. “We are now working on the requirements to be licensed.
“There is a process to register savings and loans societies, it has to be registered under Investment Promotion Authority and it has to go through the Bank of Papua New Guinea and the Savings and Loans Society Federation for establishment.
“We have gone through that process, the only thing that is pending is the endorsement from the health secretary.” Siune said the endorsement letter from the secretary was to clarify to BPNG that there would be no liabilities issues.