HIGHER duty allowances due to members of the police force will be paid, the Secretary for Finance, Samuel Penias has assured.
He said HDAs were not paid in the first pay week of 2026 because payroll system automation had yet to be updated to cater for these additional payments on top of the substantive pays.
Mr Penias explained that police personnel serving higher acting appointments who found deductions in their first pay of 2026 should not be too concerned as the pay system would be updated be reflect their correct pay status in due course.
“It has been determined that officers currently on acting appointments and paid higher duty allowances were not paid these allowances due to the automatic system inactivation on 31st December, 2025,” Mr Penias said.
“The payment of these allowances will be re-activated for 2026. For pay 01/2026, no changes were done to the RPNGC pay scale in the Alesco Payroll system by the Department of Finance.
“Also, tax rates remain unchanged in the payroll system prior to Pay 01 being processed.
“The Department of Finance is responsible for the overall processing of salaries for the whole of government.
“All payroll reports are disseminated to all government agencies by our payroll team for verification of salary payments and allowances prior to finalizations and disbursement to commercial banks.
“Any changes to staff records are done by RPNGC HR team ensuring that all its employees’ pay status are correctly reflected and paid each fortnight.
“Following consultation with RPNGC HR/salary team, it was identified that officers with “pay cuts” in Pay 01/2026 were personnel who were on official acting appointments and receiving higher duty allowances up to December 31, 2025.
“System employee record would have start and end dates for payment of higher duty allowances, all of which lapsed on the 31st of December, 2025.
“This means that the allowance is to be recommenced on a new record in the payroll system to be done by the RPNGC’s Alesco user.
“It is now the job of RPNGC’s OIC HR/Payroll to re-visit the current acting appointments and recommence payments of high duty allowance in Alesco payroll for officers that are to continue to receiving HDAs fortnightly.
“The recommencement date for higher duty allowance would be 01 January, 2026. Those affected officers would be back-paid.
“I hope this explanation clarifies any misunderstanding or confusion surrounding the state of HDA payments for acting position holders in the Royal PNG Constabulary.”
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