Morobe governor starts year with sackings

Morobe governor, Kelly Naru

Morobe governor, Kelly Naru, has started the year 2014 with the sacking of 19 employees in his office because they were either incompetent or inefficient, says The National.

Governor Naru said he wanted to start the New Year on a clean slate and new qualified and competent officers should help him govern the country’s largest province for the next four years.

Naru added that 2013 was good year for the province with equal distribution of development funds and services to the districts. However, he admitted that there were areas that still needed improvement.

He said it was unfortunate that there was some negative publicity in the media, in particular, the suspension of the micro credit scheme which resulted in the destruction of government properties.

Meanwhile, a group of youths in Lae are still waiting for a promised payment of K100, 000 for their development program, claims their patron.

Thomas Agiru, patron of the Ward One Youth Association (WOYA) claims they were promised funding by Jimmy Williams, an official from the National Planning and Monitoring department last year after meeting them at Eriku.

Agiru said they were handed a dummy cheque for the amount and promised that the amount would be paid to them. However, nothing has been paid since.

He claims that in a meeting with the department’s secretary, Dr Peter Kora, it was confirmed that a cheque had been approved, and an investigation would be conducted to find it.