Teachers in WNB and East Sepik owed millions in unpaid leave fares

Over K40 million is owed to teachers in West New Britain for accumulated annual leave fares.

Provincial MP Sasindran Muthuvel raised in Parliament recently, the late disbursement of functional grants which cater for health, education, and police, of which teacher leave fares also fall under.

Mr Muthuvel says about K40-million kina was allocated as functional grants, of which only 48 percent was received to date:

In East Sepik Province, it's a similar situation with teachers owed a total of K6 million in outstanding leave fares from 2024 and this year.

Provincial MP Allan Bird says this is K3 million kina each from the two years, owed from the functional grants.

East Sepik is owed about K104-million in outstanding functional and infrastructure grants from these two years.

Bird has asked that the Government, through Treasury and Finance to honor these outstanding payments, or they may face teacher strikes in the new year.

Finance Minister Thomas Opa gave his assuarance that, what's due will be retired before the close of government's accounts, including teacher's leave fares.

Teachers make almost half of the country's public service machinery, with over 60 thousand teachers in the country.