The Port Moresby District Court dismissed proceedings filed by 22 police retirees of the Games Village Police Barracks in the National Capital District on the 28th of April 2023, and uplifted orders restraining police management from removing them from the barracks.
In September 28, 2022, the retirees filed proceedings against the Commissioner of Police and the Management of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) after being served with notices to vacate their institutional houses at the Games Village Police Barracks, following their separation from the Constabulary.
The retirees claimed they have not received their final entitlements and requested that ample time be given to them until the 31st of December 2022 so they could make necessary arrangements, especially those that have school age children.
They also claimed that the Games Village Barracks houses were given to them under the Public Service Homeownership Give Away Scheme similar to the Government scheme in the 90s for retired or retrenched public servants.
Director Police Human Resource Superintendent Warrick Simatab filed evidence in court that proved that 16 of the 22 retirees had received their final legal entitlements, except six widows who are yet to receive their late spouses’ final entitlements.
The Police Legal Directorate represented the Police Commissioner and the Management and filed a Notice of Motion on the 31st of October 2022 to dismiss the proceedings.
On 29 March this year, Police Lawyer Chief Inspector (CIP) David Kiwai, in moving the motion to dismiss the proceedings, submitted to the court that the proceedings are an abuse of court process because it is administrative in nature, between an employer and employees, thus the court has no jurisdiction to hear and decide on the nature of the proceedings.
CIP Kiwai had also submitted that the retirees have come to court with “unclean hands” because most of them had already received their final entitlements and the houses which they claimed were given to them under the Public Service Home Ownership Scheme was not part of their legal entitlements.
CIP Kiwai also submitted that there is no gazettal notice issued under section 149 of the Land Act 1996 to prove that the houses have been given away to the retirees under that purported scheme. Therefore, he argued that the court should uplift the restraining orders and dismiss the whole proceeding.
The court in its ruling stated that to continue restraining the Commissioner of Police and his Management from carrying out their administrative duties and function would hold the Constabulary at ransom.
The court uplifted the restraining order and dismissed the whole proceeding.
Police Lawyer Chief Inspector David Kiwai outside the Port Moresby District Court after the Court ruled in favor of the Police Commissioner and the RPNGC Management.