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Showing posts from July, 2010

POPULATION OUTGROWING CITY

NATIONAL OP/ED PORT Moresby has been growing at a furious pace. The growth rate is so fast that it has outstripped all physical planning for the city. Port Moresby, the boom town, is heading for congestion and overcrowding. It is a public emergency that is staring at the government and city planners in the face daily. In another year, traffic congestion, which is heavy now, will be so thick it will take hours to get from one end of town to another. Having arrived, the problem of finding a parking space will be so great that people will double or triple-park in one space resulting in possible angry and violent scenes. Open public spaces, already shrunk to almost nil, will be non-existent. Parks and gardens will be rare. Sporting fields will be converted into buildings and in-door sports will become common. There will be no space for additional buildings, and restrictions on high-rise buildings will be lifted as builders struggle for height to add space. Present limitations at 10-storeys

POPULATION OUTGROWING CITY

NATIONAL OP/ED PORT Moresby has been growing at a furious pace. The growth rate is so fast that it has outstripped all physical planning for the city. Port Moresby, the boom town, is heading for congestion and overcrowding. It is a public emergency that is staring at the government and city planners in the face daily. In another year, traffic congestion, which is heavy now, will be so thick it will take hours to get from one end of town to another. Having arrived, the problem of finding a parking space will be so great that people will double or triple-park in one space resulting in possible angry and violent scenes. Open public spaces, already shrunk to almost nil, will be non-existent. Parks and gardens will be rare. Sporting fields will be converted into buildings and in-door sports will become common. There will be no space for additional buildings, and restrictions on high-rise buildings will be lifted as builders struggle for height to add space. Present limitations at 10-stor

"SULU DIPLOMACY DAYS ARE OVER, GOVERNMENT FRAGMANTED" - SAM BASIL

PNGBLOGS.COM There are strong signs that the Government is fragmented and there are cracks appearing in the Coalition despite the Prime Ministers efforts to hold his Government together, says outspoken Bulolo MP, Sam Basil. Mr Basil said yesterday that the confusion surrounding the appointments of new Ministers to the Somare Polye Cabinet is frustrating to the public and especially to foreign investors. He said in the last three days, senior Cabinet Ministers have been making conflicting public statements and bickering among themselves over ministerial portfolios. Mr Basil said, “It is obvious that the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare is not in charge of his Cabinet as young aspiring Turks are lobbying intensively among themselves to curry favor and also aspire for the top job. “This is not good and shows a lack of leadership and contrary to what Sir Michael is saying to raise public confidence, he has totally lost control of his Cabinet and needs to move aside and hand over the day to d

"SULU DIPLOMACY DAYS ARE OVER, GOVERNMENT FRAGMANTED" - SAM BASIL

PNGBLOGS.COM There are strong signs that the Government is fragmented and there are cracks appearing in the Coalition despite the Prime Ministers efforts to hold his Government together, says outspoken Bulolo MP, Sam Basil. Mr Basil said yesterday that the confusion surrounding the appointments of new Ministers to the Somare Polye Cabinet is frustrating to the public and especially to foreign investors. He said in the last three days, senior Cabinet Ministers have been making conflicting public statements and bickering among themselves over ministerial portfolios. Mr Basil said, “It is obvious that the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare is not in charge of his Cabinet as young aspiring Turks are lobbying intensively among themselves to curry favor and also aspire for the top job. “This is not good and shows a lack of leadership and contrary to what Sir Michael is saying to raise public confidence, he has totally lost control of his Cabinet and needs to move aside and hand over the day to d

Handout of DSIP Cheques by PM shows arrogance and blatant disregard for the Law.

By SAM BASIL - BULOLO MP The Leadership Tribunal decision in the Hagoria case upheld the legal position that all electoral funds (in that case, the District Support Grant) should be paid into the District Treasuries and NOT to any individual MPs. DSG and the District Support Improvement Program (DSIP) funds are required under Section 95A of the Organic Law on Provincial and Local-Level Governments to be paid directly to the District Treasuries. The PM was dishing out DSIP cheques to individual MPs after the “questionable” election of the GG in Parliament on Friday 25.06. 10. The PM’s action is in breach of the guidelines and the law governing the disbursements of these funds and sends a clear message of his blatant disregard for the laws of this land. This is not the only instance of the PM demonstrating his arrogance and total disrespect of the law. The PM has openly defied the laws of this land time and time again. The recent open advertisement by the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Me

Handout of DSIP Cheques by PM shows arrogance and blatant disregard for the Law.

By SAM BASIL - BULOLO MP The Leadership Tribunal decision in the Hagoria case upheld the legal position that all electoral funds (in that case, the District Support Grant) should be paid into the District Treasuries and NOT to any individual MPs. DSG and the District Support Improvement Program (DSIP) funds are required under Section 95A of the Organic Law on Provincial and Local-Level Governments to be paid directly to the District Treasuries. The PM was dishing out DSIP cheques to individual MPs after the “questionable” election of the GG in Parliament on Friday 25.06. 10. The PM’s action is in breach of the guidelines and the law governing the disbursements of these funds and sends a clear message of his blatant disregard for the laws of this land. This is not the only instance of the PM demonstrating his arrogance and total disrespect of the law. The PM has openly defied the laws of this land time and time again. The recent open advertisement by the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Me

O’Neill’s appointment as Finance Minister a cruel joke from a corrupt government

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PNGEXPOSED Prime Minister Michael Somare’s appointment of MP Peter O’Neill as Treasury and Finance Minister looks like an unmitigated disaster as Mr O’Neill has a very slippery past and was heavily involved in the National Provident Fund fraud. Peter O’Neill was one of the three people who orchestrated the NPF Tower Fraud. He helped steal millions from the retirement savings of ordinary Papua New Guineans and he has never been brought to justice. Mr O’Neill, Jimmy Maladina and Herman Leahy shared in the K2.5 million from the scam. There was a Commission of Inquiry into the NPF. It recommended various people be prosecuted for stealing, amongst other offences. One of them was Peter O’Neill. In what is now known as the Tower Fraud, Kumugai Gumi were contracted to build what is now known as Deloitte Tower in Port Moresby – a large multiple story office building. The original contract price was about K47 Million. But will Bill Skate and his boys badly managing and plundering the country,

O’Neill’s appointment as Finance Minister a cruel joke from a corrupt government

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PNGEXPOSED Prime Minister Michael Somare’s appointment of MP Peter O’Neill as Treasury and Finance Minister looks like an unmitigated disaster as Mr O’Neill has a very slippery past and was heavily involved in the National Provident Fund fraud. Peter O’Neill was one of the three people who orchestrated the NPF Tower Fraud. He helped steal millions from the retirement savings of ordinary Papua New Guineans and he has never been brought to justice. Mr O’Neill, Jimmy Maladina and Herman Leahy shared in the K2.5 million from the scam. There was a Commission of Inquiry into the NPF. It recommended various people be prosecuted for stealing, amongst other offences. One of them was Peter O’Neill. In what is now known as the Tower Fraud, Kumugai Gumi were contracted to build what is now known as Deloitte Tower in Port Moresby – a large multiple story office building. The original contract price was about K47 Million. But will Bill Skate and his boys badly managing and plundering the coun

OMBUDSMAN ASKED TO FREEZE OVERSEAS ACCOUNTS AND ASSETS

POST COURIER REPORTS All parliamentarians who have been referred by the Ombudsman Commission for failure to submit their annual returns must have all their overseas bank accounts frozen including their immediate relatives pending the outcome of the tribunals. Bulolo MP Sam Basil said hundreds and millions of kina had been siphoned off by parliamentarians and their cohorts and was believed to have been stashed in overseas bank accounts and properties that needed to be liquidated and returned to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, if they could not provide proof of how they had acquired the wealth. Stacks of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reports on misappropriation by politicians and their friends involving billions of kina were sitting in Waigani collecting dust while billions of kina was disappearing from numerous trust accounts where enforcement agencies were not interested to investigate, he claimed. “Many leaders and top public servants are implicated whereby they have the

OMBUDSMAN ASKED TO FREEZE OVERSEAS ACCOUNTS AND ASSETS

POST COURIER REPORTS All parliamentarians who have been referred by the Ombudsman Commission for failure to submit their annual returns must have all their overseas bank accounts frozen including their immediate relatives pending the outcome of the tribunals. Bulolo MP Sam Basil said hundreds and millions of kina had been siphoned off by parliamentarians and their cohorts and was believed to have been stashed in overseas bank accounts and properties that needed to be liquidated and returned to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, if they could not provide proof of how they had acquired the wealth. Stacks of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reports on misappropriation by politicians and their friends involving billions of kina were sitting in Waigani collecting dust while billions of kina was disappearing from numerous trust accounts where enforcement agencies were not interested to investigate, he claimed. “Many leaders and top public servants are implicated whereby they have

NONGORR FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE

PETER PENA - MT HAGEN   (First posted on the Masalai Blogs) The only apt way to describe the recent full page advertisements by John Nongorr on the subject of rule of law in PNG is that his use of discredited Reports (Defence Inquiry & Ombudsman) into the Moti Affair as providing credible basis in a bid to resurrect in the public arena a matter that is now considered a dead issue, is not only surprising but is effectively flogging a dead horse. I act for Julian Moti in PNG. My principal concern is over people using my clients name and his unfortunate misadventure at the hands of the PNG and Australian governments, to seek professional or political mileage, in the pretext of social altruism. It is the worst form of insincerity there is, if used to mask ones real intentions. I am not suggesting any insincerity on John Nongorr’s part, and I assume he means well. Nevertheless, I consider that it is necessary to expose the false underlying assumptions behind these Reports,