Church-Run Health Services in PNG Face Funding delay woes

Church run health services throughout Papua New Guinea  have given an ultimatum to the Government to release their overdue funds or they will stop work.

In a joint news conference in Port Moresby on Wednesday, the Christian Health Services and the Catholic Health Services gave 15 working days to the Government to release its budgetary allocation in the 2020 national budget.

The Government has not released the funding grants for all church run health centers for the last four months.

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All Christian church run medical facilities in the country are still waiting for their Salary and Operational Grants to be released from the Government.

The Chairman of the Christian Health Services Jepelis Kaiok flanked by representatives from the Catholic Health Services warned to stop work if the Government does not meet its obligation to release overdue funding since February this year.

The 15-day deadline to the Government will end on 3rd July.

The Christian Churches run a network of 745 facilities consisting health centers and training colleges for health care workers.

It employs close to 5, 000 people in all 22 provinces and this work force has not been paid salary for the last 4 fortnights.

Mr Kaiok says they cannot continue to force their workers to work anymore.

“Now that the notice has been given, the church facilities are still operating, our staff are still out there working,” said Mr Kaiok.

“January, pay came in and they got their pays but from February up, individual church agencies including Catholics through their administration were able to cope and manage whatever little funds to pay but it's now taken up to June and its almost been four months.”

Mr Kaiok says these are human beings with families who need necessities to survive and they cannot continue for the next five to seven months.

He further revealed that Christian Churches run health training facilities are still waiting for their operational grants from the National Government for the last few years.

Mr Kaiok says letters have been delivered to the office of the Prime Minister and the National Department of Health.

Meanwhile acting Health Secretary Dr. Paison Dakulala told NBC News that he is aware of the funding situation facing the church-run health facilities.

He says the hold up in release of the funding grants is at the Department of Treasury.

NBC News

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