Yer disobeys court order

CORRECTIONAL Services Commissioner Richard Sikani took the witness stand to answer questions about progress of work done to upgrade the Boram Correctional Institution as ordered last year by Justice David Cannings in Wewak.
Cannings noted that the secretary for Finance Gabriel Yer was not present, describing it as “unfortunate”, before inviting Sikani to take the witness stand.
Sikani told the court that securing the K150,000 from the state through the Finance secretary was the major problem in fully complying with the court order of Nov 20 last year.
“I wrote letters to the secretary with the order attached but received no response. I had to fork out K210,000 from the recurrent budget to pay for the maintenance work,” he said.
Cannings expressed his concern saying: “I’m concerned that the secretary for finance has not complied with this court order, and was he aware of this?”
Sikani replied that following several correspondences, he did speak to Yer in person about the money but was bluntly told that “there was no money”.
When asked about the relocation site of the Boram jail, Sikani responded: “On the other side of the river near Perigo.”
The judge then advised the CS commissioner to file a notice of motion under this proceeding for orders to Yer to make finance available.
“I am satisfied that commissioner of correctional services has made efforts to comply with the order of Nov 20 last year.
“In saying that, I accept the commissioner’s undertaking that the orders will be complied with by the end of next month,” Cannings said.
The non-appearance by Yer caused Cannings to order the finance secretary to “attend the hearing in person, failing which a warrant will be issued for his arrest”.