Transcript
On Monday, dozens of disgruntled soldiers gathered outside a PNG government executive building in Waigani, demaning outstanding allowances for work at November's APEC Leaders summit.
Defence force officers visited the soldiers and appealed for patience, saying the Department of Finance needed about two weeks to mobilise the funding.
The Defence Force's commander, Gilbert Toropo, said the situation was ultimately defused and the men returned to their barracks. But he insisted their behaviour would not go unpunished.
"These individual soldiers going outside the chain of command and demanding the government to quickly pay their allowances is an illegal action. So we will deal with it under the court of military discipline and it is going to be, they will pay the price for their actions."
Last November, a day after the APEC summit ended, dozens of police and corrections officers went on a rampage through parliament, over their frustrations about unpaid work.
The Police Minister Jelta Wong says Defence Force, police and corrections personnel who worked on the APEC security operation have received their substantive pay already.
"After the APEC when there was a bit of a ruckus, the speaker promised to secure some funding to pay them a bonus. And it's been passed through the cabinet already. So they should get something within the next week or so.
The regiment that came to the prime minister's office.. like I always tell them, you're not entitled to it. Through the Financial Management Act, they get paid an allowance, a set amount, and that set amount has been paid to them already."
A police investigation is underway into the rampage, but parliament's speaker, Job Pomat, last month said it should be called off in the spirit of forgiveness.
Earlier he said the cost of repairing the damage from the rampage was between ten and fifteen million kina.
But the government minister in charge of hosting APEC, Justin Tkatchenko, says those who purposely damaged the country's reputation and its house of parliament should not be forgiven.
"What they did was politically motivated, and what they did was totally uncalled for and should have never, ever happened. So they only have themselves to blame for the consequences of their own actions. And those that are found guilty mjust face the full force of the law for what they did."
Mr Wong echoed his fellow MP's stand, even though he was earlier quoted in a PNG newspaper as saying none of the officers involved in the November rampage would be prosecuted.
"That was a misquote in a local paper. I did a retraction the next day. Of course they should be held accountable, they broke the law. We've already arested some. Some were released, for some unknown reason... but we got them back."
RNZ Pacific has spoken to the Speaker Job Pomat who says he cannot comment on the issue while he is acting Governor-General.
Meanwhile, Mr Wong says the bonuses for the security forces have been budgeted for and he expects them to be paid in the next week or so.
