5 Jun 2004

PNG minister says public servants pay problem human error

9:20 am on 5 June 2004

The Public Service Minister in Papua New Guinea says it's probably human error that's resulted in thousands of public servants not being paid.

Health workers and teachers called on the government earlier this week, to rectify many cases of non-payment this year.

Sinai Brown, who was recently appointed as a minister in a cabinet reshuffle, says people may not have been adequately trained on how to use the new payroll system that was introduced this year.

"A computer is, works to the effect that if you put in garbage you get garbage out, that's sort of a technical problem. I attribute some of these hiccups to not filling the computer system with the right information."

Mr Brown says he'll investigate further once he settles in to his role.