Service providers owed K30m

By JEFFREY ELAPA
SERVICE providers throughout the country are owed more than K30 million for their services in the recent general election, Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen said.
He told a press conference in Port Moresby yesterday that K29.8 million of the debt was for vehicle hire with costs for boat hire, catering and hotel accommodation accounting for the balance.
Trawen said of the total cost, the highlands region topped the list with K17.9 million, followed by southern with K5.7 million, Mamose K5.6 million, and islands K1.2 million.
He said the commission also owed contract officials K4 million, bringing the total to K34.6 million.
Trawen added he was still negotiating with the Finance Department to release the funds and appealed to the service providers to remain calm and not to harass his electoral staff as they would be paid.
He said the reason for the delay was that the original submission to the government was for K240 million to run the elections but the commission received K190 million, a shortfall of K50 million.
“Much of the costs incurred were because of the delay in the elections leaving the amount allocated insufficient to settle all outstanding bills,” he said.
He said he was confident the government would give him the money to pay the service providers, hopefully by the end of the year after next year’s budget was passed.
He said payments for vehicle hire would be made in Port Moresby while the payments for accommodation, catering, boat and dinghy hire would be done in the provinces.
Trawen said his office would go through the claims submitted before all payments were made as some of them appeared to be bogus.