Acting Chief of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, Commodore Philip Polewara has directed that the 2022 back pay of the PNGDF personnel be implemented at a later date once the individual pay of every service man and woman is corrected.
Polewara says the priority now is to correct all deficiencies. The back pay implementation cannot happen while there are shortfalls and discrepancies in the payroll. He issued these directions after discussions with the Secretary for Finance.
“In the process of correcting pay period six, we discovered that there were few service personnel who had some discrepancies in their pay during pay period 5. Hence, we will correct all those issues and ensure everybody is on the correct pay level before we look at implementing the backdate.
“Our team at Defence continues to work with their counterparts from the Department of Finance to rectify the payroll issue. All payroll staff will not have Easter Holiday and will work through to complete data upload before pay period 7. Key senior staff at HQ will also not be on Easter Holiday. They will be at work to oversee that the corrections are completed. As of this morning, most of the data have been uploaded into the system and Defence staff are working diligently, day and night, to complete the upload.”
Polewara commended the men and women of the force for their discipline during the pay discrepancy experienced in pay period six on Wednesday 20th March 2024, and extends his sincere appreciation to the families, spouses and children of the service men and women.
He further stated, “Despite the difficulties we face in our pay, I would like to thank all service men and women throughout the force who are assisting our people around the country in the various national disasters. I thank the personnel involved in assisting our people in the Highlands, East Sepik, and the search and rescue operation that is underway in New Ireland waters. And not the least, our personnel keeping watch at the northern and southern boarders.”
He added, “I thank you all for your understanding and patience, and your dedication to observe duty of care for each other, our PNGDF assets, and our country.
“Thank you for your service. Your pay problem is HQPNGDF’s problem, we are all in this together.”