The Secretary for Treasury has strongly condemned the irresponsible and illegal act of the person(s) who have released an internal memorandum in relation to the results of the Government’s weekly Treasury Bills and Inscribed Stock fundraising auction.
According to the leaked internal memorandum, the Public Debt Committee was advised by an officer from the Bank of PNG that they will be “struggling to pay salaries on time due to issues relating to the cashflow situation”.
The memo went on to say about K60m-K70m is needed to allow payroll to be processed.
On the other hand, Secretary Dairi Vele said: “Let us be clear that public service salaries will be paid.
“The Government Auction is one way that we use to raise funds. It is NOT the only way.
“We go to auction and sometimes, the market, being the commercial banks and the superfunds, subscribe to the amount that we are hoping for and even more and other times they do not. Their decisions are a matter for them and not for us.
“But when we do not raise as much as we wanted from this mechanism, we activate our other mechanisms, which we have done already.”
The Secretary said this was a cowardly act and whoever the perpetrators are will be identified and prosecuted.
He further stressed that those who choose to spread this type of misinformation are just unnecessarily inciting restlessness in the community.
“The last thing hard working public servants need is misleading and false information about their livelihoods.”
The Public Debt Committee comprises Treasury, Finance, Planning and BPNG. It meets weekly to oversee the Government’s auction program.
(File pic of Secretary for Treasury, Dairi Vele)