Adding to the list of manic Monday issues on Monday this week, 6 floors of the 7-storey Fincorp Haus were cleared by all public servants working in the Education Department.
Disgruntled public servants sat idle outside the building in disbelief of what was happening while their colleagues proceeded to remove boxes of equipment to relocate to their homes or in the case of the Teaching Services commission, the National Library and Archives, where they will work from as the formalities get sorted out.
This comes after the proprietor of the building, Grand Columbia Limited, issued a notice of closure last week, stating that the Government Office Allocation Committee over the last 24 months had only payed 2 months of rent.
As it stands, the outstanding rental arears of the GOAC backdated since 2017 is K39million.
On Monday that notice came to fruition as members of the DoE were asked to leave the building premises.
Being the last man to exit the building, Teachers Services Commission Chairman, Mr. Samson Wangihomie expressed great concern as it is coming towards the end of the year, stating that this is a critical time for the for the commission.
“We are coming towards the end of the year and all our school activities are happening, graduations are taking place. In our case [TSC], Teachers Colleges are graduating.”
He added that as for the case of the TSC, they have relocated to the National Libraries and Archives and will be working from there, to which he believes the only challenge they would face would be connectivity to the internet.
“The only difficulty we are going to have is the connectivity to the internet in order to get our jobs done. But are moving so we are putting our equipment there so for our staff to at least have access to printing and all that kind of stuff.
But that does not mean that we will stop working, we are working, the entire ministry is working and will continue to work.”
He added that he was thankful that other institutions such as the Port Moresby National High School, have assisted to take in one Division of the Department.