West New Britain teachers owed K45 million

A number of teachers in West New Britain Province are owed over K45 million in outstanding salaries.

These teachers are mostly new graduates and those who have re-entered the teaching service.

Acting Executive Manager for the Division of Education, Vincent Kalatia revealed this in Kimbe, this week.

He says the West New Britain Provincial Government is doing its best with the limited funds available to settle these huge backlog of outstanding pay issues.

The new graduates and teachers re-entering the teaching service who have been put on the teaching payroll but have not been backdated their salaries to the dates that they commenced work.

Mr Kalatia says the most of those affected are elementary school teachers who after being put on the payroll have yet to be backdated their salaries.

He clarified that these outstanding salaries are from as far back as 2012.

Mr Kalatia explained that the Provincial Government and Administration is doing its best to clear this backlog of claims but cannot due much given the obvious issues of limited funding being allocated by the national government.

He added that he will be reviewing the list of teachers with outstanding salary claims as there may be some claims that are not genuine.

Meanwhile, the Division of Education in the province still owes millions of Kina in unpaid leave fares for teachers for the 2024 academic year.