Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape says service providers are owed K100 million (US$28 million) for PNG national elections dating back to 2012.
This could cause problems for the call-out of disciplinary forces that rely on the service providers, he said.
For the 2022 national elections, all service providers and temporary election workers engaged by the State through the PNG Electoral Commission (PNGEC) must have an operating bank account so payments are paid to them directly without delay.
This is to avoid unnecessary cost incurred to the State, as seen in previous elections, Marape said.
However, Marape said the monies owed are being paid off by the time the issue of writs is issued.
“The bills have built up and we are cleaning them out as we go along, just like many of the cleansing we have been doing for the last three years,” he said.
“We will be working on expenditures for this election, expenditures for all State agencies; Electoral Commission will try to supervise a good fair election for every one of us.”
He confirmed that the Autonomous Region of Bougainville service providers are owed K5 million (US$1.42 million) from 2017.
