The long delay of payments to contractors building school infrastructure in the National Capital District will affect continuing students next year.
The Director of the Education Infrastructure program Michael Phasa highlighted this concern saying about 2000 grade nine students would miss out next year because there are not enough classrooms. Due to the Free Education Policy the number of students has increased from 4000 to 6000 who will continue to Grade 9. He said the current infrastructure only allows 4000 students. “The reality is, some continuing Grade 9 students for next year will miss out. “I am sure parents wouldn’t want that,” Mr Phasa said. He said the contractors need to be paid for their services. About K170m is needed to pay off the contractors in the five year program. The contractors engaged with the program were contracted to build double classrooms and teachers houses, in line with the infrastructure development of the Free Education policy. He said there are 208 contractors still waiting to be paid. Mr Phasa said education was a priority under the O’Neill-Dion Government. “And we as officers are implementing these programs to work in line with the Government vision to make sure infrastructure is in place. On Saturday, contractors engaged to carry out the Education Infrastructure program work on schools in NCD demanded an explanation from the Education Department why their payments were not made. They also demanded why they were not informed that there was no money to pay them for their services. The Minister for Finance James Marape and the Education Secretary Dr Phillip Tapo have denied that there was money available for such a program. Mr Phasa claims there was money allocated however somehow it was diverted. Mr Phasa also welcomed the decision by Mr Marape to have him investigated. “I am no crook,” he said. Comments are closed.
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