FIVE years on and Auki contractors, who contributed much to the Festival of Pacific Arts of 2012, are still waiting for their payments.

They told this paper, “we are waiting for almost 5 years now but no payments have been from the responsible ministry, which is the Ministry of Tourism.

“We have met already to discuss this issue that very soon we will issue a letter to the ministry of tourism office here in Auki.”

Auki was one of the main attractions outside of Honiara during the festival, and this was due to the hard work of these contractors.

“Through our hard work and through preparing the site lifts the name of our province and our country as a whole.

“We really support tourism industry in our country but the national government did not recognize our hard work.”

They add, “The outstanding bill will go mainly for the stage builders, beautification, Plumbing, transport including Telekom and police.

“At the moment we heard that a new building will be build for the ministry of tourism here in Auki by April this year 2017.”