Climate Change did not lie to the people of Epi: DG Napat

The Director General of the Ministry for Climate Change, Jotham Napat, has responded to Friday’s article in the Daily Post newspaper in which the people of north Epi claimed they were lied to and NOT paid by Climate Change office people in Port Vila for the work they had done on the Epi Infrastructure project. As a result they (workers) had barricaded the new Mapuna hill road in northeast Epi during the Christmas and New Year weeks.

DG Napat said that the Ministry of Climate Change did not lie to the workers by not fulfilling its obligations to pay them as it appeared in the Daily Post article.

He explained that what happened was that the funds the Ministry acquires for the project comes through SPREP, the South Pacific Regional Environmental Program, whose office is in Apia, Samoa and they release these funds in installments.

“When we complete one phase of the road project then we certify that the work has been completed and then we send the report to SPREP. They look at the report and when they are satisfied with the report, they release the funds to us. That is the process,” Napat explained.

“It does not mean that we at Climate Change lied about our intentions to pay them. It is most unfortunate that the agency that releases funds to us has not made this in time, because we actually must apply for disbursement.”

“So when they do not send this money on time it affects our payments for services rendered by those we engaded. We have to pay them. It’s not only them. There are other companies whose services we engaged in the project that we must also pay them and these people also are still waiting for their money,” the Director General for Climate Change continued.

One of such companies is in Port Vila whose machinery and drivers Climate Change Ministry hired to help with the work of leveling the ground for the work to be done and they too are still waiting for their payment.

DG Napat said it was unfortunate that the workers on Epi used this issue to blockade the road, “because that is not the issue and they are still going to be paid for their work.”

“It’s just that the money is with SPREP. We have sent all our report and it is with them. And when they send the money we will pay them and get them to complete parts of the work still to be done,” he concluded.