The Electoral Commission office in Boroko today had an angry crowd of Enrollment Agents who were demanding payments.
The Enrollment Agents Last December were employed by Electoral Commission as casual employees to update the NCDC Common Roll.
The crowd were angry and frustrated after payments owed to them from the Boroko Electoral Commission were overdue for a month.
John Bare, representing the agents said, that the 14-day payments that were paid to agents were only for 10 days, while some haven’t received any payments at all.
NCD Election Manager, Terence Hetinu, addressed the angry crowd saying that due to false claims and double payments, the Boroko Head office had sent a list of names, and accounts for the bank to check to ensure that there were no double payments made.
But the explanation did not sit well with the agents; they argued that the commercial bank would not take a month to process details and that they wanted the truth.
To calm the situation, Hetinu assured the agents he would call the head office, police arrived to calm the situation.
Hetinu than returned and told the agents that they would receive payments next Wednesday, and the fault was with the Electoral Commission head office.
He said the Bank report had just arrived at the Electoral Commission HR office, and the deputy commissioner had approve payments.
Hetinu further explained that Electoral Commission then will have to send to the Finance Department, and it will take another three working days before the payments should arrive in their accounts, and the petty cash arrive at the office.
Meanwhile, the word from the Electoral Commission Head Office is that the there was a shortfall of K200,000 from the funds received to pay them.
Electoral Commission office is currently waiting for the bank statements from Bank of South Pacific to confirm amounts that have been paid so that they can rectify this.
