Wage bill jumps

Public servants taking their oath of office to signify their commitment to the year of service.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, January 15, 2018 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)



MINISTER for Finance James Marape revealed to public servants in Port Moresby their growing wage bill for 2017 to chew up 30% of the country’s money plan for 2017.

Marape outlined the figures giving comparison for the state’s 150,000 workforce as opposed to the country’s population of 8 million plus, only measured up to 1.9% of the population that eats up a significant portion of the money plan.

“Every fortnight Secretary Vele (Treasury), Secretary Ngangan (Finance), Chief Secretary Isacc Lupari we try to look for K130 million every payday to ensure that the number expenditure of government books, your payroll is met without fail,” Marape said.

“You multiply K130 million by 26, that amounts to K3.38 billion every year. You deduct from the K13 billion budget we passed this year that eqates to 26% of the total government expenditure for 2017 fiscal year.”

“Secretary Vele tells me that the first wage bill for this year has increased from 130 million to 170 million.”

He said in response to the jump, the scenario presented a percentage of the wage bill that eats into the money plan for 2017 to exceed 30%.

“In fact we will see that about 34% (K4.42 billion) of the total money that we have to run our country 2017 fiscal year.”

“So for a population base of under 2% we consume 34% meaning you and I the entire public servants.”