Several government departments in Papua New Guinea have been locked out of their offices because of unpaid rent.
In some cases the government hasn't paid rent for months.
The doors to offices including the Ombudsman and the Treasury were last week chained and padlocked shut, with landlords saying the government owes more than $US306,000 in rent.
The government says a looming supplementary budget will address the issue, insisting it's doing its best to catch up.
But Paul Barker, from the PNG Institute of National Affairs, told Jamie Tahana it points to deeper problems in the government's books.
Letter notifying government of rent money owed
Photo: twitter
Transcript
PAUL BARKER: There seem to be two sets of lockouts just of late. The main ones are in buildings that belong to the Public Offices Superannuation Fund and that includes Treasury and Internal Revenue and a variety of other institutions.
JAMIE TAHANA: Somewhat ironic isn't it?
PB: Very much so because the state has a real shortage of revenue and if you are not going to have revenue staff able to access their offices then that may not be enhanced. Although you could say that maybe some of them will be able to get out and use their time usefully and chase up some of their clients or some of the taxpayers or non-taxpayers. You have got the Ombudsman Commission and I think one or two others may be locked out by the other big superannuation fund which is NasFund which is the private sector superannuation fund. So it's obviously reached a point where the funds have decided that they need to tackle it head on.
JT: And in a couple of these cases, it is not just a case of a week's missed rent or anything, it is sort of a year's build-up in one case.
PB: Yes it is indicative of a real cash-flow problem and wider budgetary problems that the state has and in a way what they have been doing is looking at whoever is most urgent and then having to pay off those particular bills, otherwise there could be consequences. Sometimes that can be landowners who, just lately for example, threatened to cut off water supply and power to the national capital or landowners in resource projects who are demanding payments promptly or otherwise there could be consequences on exports and so on. All these players are demanding and have considered this a suitable time, with a new government, and they are aware of course that there are others demanding so they want to get to the head of the pack.
JT: What's the cause for this? Clearly it's because the rent hasn't be paid but shouldn't the government budgets and such factor in that you have to pay your rent? Shouldn't this be covered?
PB: Absolutely. Of course it is partly a reflection of the fact that revenue has not been achieving the budgeted levels and also that the expenditure is well above the budgeted levels and you can say that is partly because maybe the budgets were overly optimistic or really didn't fully take into consideration things like the larger payroll, the larger government payroll, which should be fully factored in obviously and is obviously a priority. We have over the last 12 months a number of instances where government entities had delays in paying of staff. So it does indicate a problem with the budgeting and a problem with how the budget actually applies.
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