Service providers want payment

ALL service providers of the 2012 general election in the Southern Highlands are still waiting for the Electoral Commission to settle outstanding payments.
Service providers from the province claimed they had not been paid.
Spokesman, Jethro Onasu said from Mendi last Friday that provincial accountant Sabastian Kisombo and election manager David Wakias had promised to pay them by the end of last month but that had eventuated.
Onasu said a similar thing happened in the 2007 elections when election officials walked away with thousands of kina without paying service providers.
“We appeal to the electoral commissioner to immediately intervene and settle the payments as we are partners of a free and fair election 2012,” he said.
“In our little ways we have contributed to the success of the elections and we are asking the commission to pay us our outstanding payments. We call on the commissioner to explain the delay to us.”
Onasu said donors such as AusAID and the fraud squad should investigate money budgeted for elections in Southern Highlands to ensure that money had been used according to what it was intended for.
He said election officials in the
province had gone into hiding and they could not rely on any information on their payments.
He said the service providers were prepared to take further action if they were not paid what the electoral commission owe them.
Attempts to contact provincial election manager Wakias were unsuccessful.