WHP still pays Jiwaka

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
PUBLIC servants in Jiwaka will still be paid under the salary coding of Western Highlands until 2013.
Director of Jiwaka Nicholas Kuman said yesterday that 147 public servants working in the province would still be paid by the Department of Western Highlands.
He said the Department of Treasury has given Jiwaka a new salary coding but this would be effective from next year.Kuman said under the Department of Jiwaka, a total of 487 public servant positions were created and approved by the Department of Personnel Management.
He said this included the 147 public servants now working in the new province.
Kuman said that they were now working on a provincial budget for the public servants’ salary to be included in next year’s budget.“We are now preparing documentations for formal ceremony to take place where Western Highlands will release Jiwaka to run it’s own affairs,” he said.
Kuman said it was supposed to have taken place before the issue of writs. However, since the public servants in the province didn’t do a proper report on the inventory of assets as requested by the provincial administrator for Western Highlands Malcolm Culligan, the programme was deferred.
An official hand-over is schedule for next month.He said they are also waiting be paid for their shares in the Western Highlands Development Co-operation.
, a business arm of the provincial government.Kuman said a proper valuation on the company has to be carried out to find out its value before paying out in cash or allow them to continue to become shareholders.
He said that this would be discussed later between the two provincial governments.