Post Courier reports that the Africans and the Caribbean’s blasted ACP Secretary-General Sir John Kaputin for not standing by them regarding their per diems, and generally the treatment given to them.
They also badly criticized European Union for paying more per diem for the EU Secretariat and its members and for not according the same treatment to ACP country leaders.
In a brief meeting with Sir John Kaputin and his secretariat executives at the Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium, leaders of Guyana, Lesotho, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Barbados, Surinam, to name a few all aired their grievances and how they suffered with only 42 euros, or $54, a day awarded them while they claimed the EU Secretariat and the ACP executives were on a much, much higher per diem.
The leaders also blasted Sir John for the treatment given to them in hotels in Port Moresby, especially the rates quoted them earlier — that it doubled when they arrived in the country and how transport was also poorly organized for them.
Most leaders said they had spent their meager salaries from transits and hotels in other countries before reaching the meeting venue, which was PNG with no clear specifications and indications who was going to pay or whether they were going to be reimbursed.
They stressed than in any future ACP-EU meetings, Sir John and his executives, as the leader of the ACP countries should stress to them who would be meeting the costs, how much they would be getting and what benefits they were entitled to before they could even travel to the next meeting place.
