School waits for Apec committee

By LULU MARK
A church-run primary school in Port Moresby is still waiting for the Apec committee to fix the damage done to the school by an Apec bus last month.
Carr Memorial principal Nida Bland told The National that the cost of the damage was about K20,000.
Bland said it was not in the school’s budget and with cuts to the Tuition Fee Free (TFF) subsidy, the school could not afford to fix the damage.
“Based on a verbal agreement, the bus is in the school to ensure that the Apec committee took responsibility to fix the damage or raised enough money into the school account to fix it,” Bland said.
“The incident happened in the night and I wrote a report on the damaged fence to the committee the next day, but I haven’t received any acknowledgement or feedback from them.
“The longer the bus is held in here, the more money the school is spending on its security.
“There is a weak link in the school fencing system that puts the school’s assets at risk of being stolen.” Additional security personnel were hired to guard the school and the Apec bus.
“We don’t know when the bus is going to be taken out but we are making sure the bus is in good condition with no graffiti and additional damage.”
Communities around the Adventist school raised concerns that if it had happened during the day, there would have been a lot of casualties and also if the tree wasn’t there, the bus would have hit a classroom.
“Payment for the damage is being sorted and once transaction is confirmed, we will proceed onto to phase of removing bus from school yard,” Apec 2018 PNG coordination authority senior road routes officer Eugene Jr Schulze said.