Photo: John Rosso . Credit: EMTV
In response to a question asked by a reporter regarding the Government’s stance on the lock down of prime government buildings, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Lands and Physical Planning Hon. John Rosso stressed that the issue of unpaid rentals that the Government is currently facing were aggregated amounts of money that has accumulated over many years.
The concerned buildings were locked following issues with the landlord and the National Government. Vulupindi Haus, which housed the Treasury and Financial Departments had gone into lock down last Wednesday with chains tied to the main entrance doors by security guards as per instructions by the landlord, Nambawan Super Limited.
Following his response, Rosso said the Finance and Treasury Ministers are now working to solve the issue. He confirmed that the outstanding bills accumulated to over K100 million and the Government has already paid K53mil.
“From that K100mil that accumulated, we appropriated K53mil in the last two weeks in the concerned rental arrears,” Rosso said.
Prime Minister James Marape also addressed that the Government is working on building new offices. He said the buildings especially the IRC building (Revenue Haus) was once owned by the Government but was sold under the Mekere Government Privatization Policy in 2001.
“Someone taught PNG would go away and sold the Revenue Haus building at that time for about K30mil and was leased again. Today, the rental cost for a year is about K12mil and we again paid about K200mil to a building that we originally owned,” the PM explained.
“We are reviving all these things as we’ve been paying over K300mil to landlords in the country and because some of the landlords are businesses, they are operating in a business manner so we understand this. We will pay the outstanding.” He added.
The Prime Minister further stated and affirmed that the state is now looking at a build-operate-transfer arrangement to manage State rentals.
