Power bill emergency working

PORT MORESBY – The Papua New Guinea Public Enterprises Minister says over NZ$5 million worth of overdue residential power bills have now been paid as the country remains under a state of emergency.

Ben Micah declared a 60-day state of emergency last week in an attempt to collect some of the nearly US$50 million overall debt owed to PNG Power Limited.

Micah says police and security personnel have been accompanying PNG Power staff during collections.

He says the move had to be made because threats had been made to the staff and to the security of the power grid.

“Government took strong measures to address this. Between the two weeks since when the gazette for the proclamation of emergency was made, the company is now in the black.

“We have managed to turn it around because collections are now being made, people who were not paying their bills are now paying their bills. We have been able to turn around a situation that could not be resolved for many, many years.”

The retired army captain in charge of the state of emergency, Tom Ur, said the reaction by customers to the SOE was very encouraging.

He said in the provinces Lae collected K1.3 million (NZ$650,00), Vanimo got K55,000 (NZ$27,000), Wewak saw a collection of K167,000 (NZ$83,000), Goroka collected K93,000 (NZ$46,000), Mt Hagen K22,000 (NZ$11,000) and Kokopo K101,000 (NZ$50,000).

Ur has cautioned critics – especially politicians – not to spread rumours causing anxiety among the public that the Defence Force and Police were involved using force.

He said so far no troops have been called out to assist with force. He said most areas had been identified as “tough areas” – people in those areas have come forward voluntarily.

“The nature of the operation is very clear, we have acquired a leaking ship and we are in the process of identifying the leakages and plugging it and at the same time we are going out recouping money that the company should be bringing in to its cash flow so that it can continue to operate.”

“The issue of threat is especially on those people illegally consuming power, illegally connecting power and illegally generating power.

“Our message is for them to come forward and do the right thing. If they apply resistance, that is when we look at what appropriate force to use depending on the level of threat.

“If you have made mistakes, come and we correct it – don’t misuse power at the expanse of those good people.”