PNGBLOGS

SOUTH PACIFIC POST   Govt is arrogant, selfish and functions like dictatorship THE current National Parliament is the “worst” Papua New Guinea has had in the last 20 years, Lae MP and deputy opposition leader Bart Philemon said yesterday. Speaking in support of former prime minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu who said the people have lost faith in PNG’s parliamentary democracy, Mr Philemon said parliament has lost its credibility and integrity because the present government has treated it with absolute contempt and disrespect. Mr Philemon said despite the Supreme Court affirmation that confirmed parliament must sit for nine weeks in a year or 63 days, the Somare government has failed to uphold that constitutional requirement. Mr Philemon said from August 2007 when the eighth Parliament started to July 2008 the National Parliament sat for only 49 days out of the required 63 days. Then from July 2008 to July 2009 the House sat for 31 days out of 63 required by the Constitution. Mr Philemon said

SOUTH PACIFIC POST   Govt is arrogant, selfish and functions like dictatorship THE current National Parliament is the “worst” Papua New Guinea has had in the last 20 years, Lae MP and deputy opposition leader Bart Philemon said yesterday. Speaking in support of former prime minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu who said the people have lost faith in PNG’s parliamentary democracy, Mr Philemon said parliament has lost its credibility and integrity because the present government has treated it with absolute contempt and disrespect. Mr Philemon said despite the Supreme Court affirmation that confirmed parliament must sit for nine weeks in a year or 63 days, the Somare government has failed to uphold that constitutional requirement. Mr Philemon said from August 2007 when the eighth Parliament started to July 2008 the National Parliament sat for only 49 days out of the required 63 days. Then from July 2008 to July 2009 the House sat for 31 days out of 63 required by the Constitution. Mr Phile

OP.ED The blame game is not new in PNG. If we like, it is part and partial of the PNG attitude. So it is interesting to note that Health Minister Sasa Zibe does not want to be held responsible for the national doctors’ strike. As the strike rolls into its fifth day, Minister Zibe blames the strike squarely on senior public servants in the National Department of Health and the Personal Management Department. Just how are the senior management teams of the two departments feeling now that they are bluntly told by a senior state minister that they are incompetent? The log of claims has been outstanding for three years. We find it hard to swallow Zibe’s defence. As a leader, the minister must take full responsibility for the strike. The buck, we say, must stop with him. That is not to say that the bureaucrats are blameless. They too must share the blame with Zibe. The strike rolls into the fifth day. We are sure that the hospitals throughout the country are starting to feel the impact of t

OP.ED The blame game is not new in PNG. If we like, it is part and partial of the PNG attitude. So it is interesting to note that Health Minister Sasa Zibe does not want to be held responsible for the national doctors’ strike. As the strike rolls into its fifth day, Minister Zibe blames the strike squarely on senior public servants in the National Department of Health and the Personal Management Department. Just how are the senior management teams of the two departments feeling now that they are bluntly told by a senior state minister that they are incompetent? The log of claims has been outstanding for three years. We find it hard to swallow Zibe’s defence. As a leader, the minister must take full responsibility for the strike. The buck, we say, must stop with him. That is not to say that the bureaucrats are blameless. They too must share the blame with Zibe. The strike rolls into the fifth day. We are sure that the hospitals throughout the country are starting to feel the impact

OSEAH PHILEMON The Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea Sir Salamo Injia has brought in three foreign judges to sit on the leadership tribunal to hear the misconduct charges against Prime Minister Sir Michael Thomas Somare. It will be the first time in the history of Papua New Guinea since it gained independence on 16 September 1975 that a Prime Minister has been charged by the Ombudsman Commission for breaching the Leadership Code, which applies to all leaders. Somare was the chairman of the Constitutional Planning Committee which drew up PNG’s constitution and now he will face the same law he wrote for the newly emerging nation state. The tribunal will consist of Roger Gyles AO, QC, a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia, as chairman; and the members are Sir Bruce Robertson, a former Judge of the Court of Appeal and the high Court of New Zealand; and Sir Robin Auld, a former Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Injia said the appointments of the

OSEAH PHILEMON The Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea Sir Salamo Injia has brought in three foreign judges to sit on the leadership tribunal to hear the misconduct charges against Prime Minister Sir Michael Thomas Somare. It will be the first time in the history of Papua New Guinea since it gained independence on 16 September 1975 that a Prime Minister has been charged by the Ombudsman Commission for breaching the Leadership Code, which applies to all leaders. Somare was the chairman of the Constitutional Planning Committee which drew up PNG’s constitution and now he will face the same law he wrote for the newly emerging nation state. The tribunal will consist of Roger Gyles AO, QC, a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia, as chairman; and the members are Sir Bruce Robertson, a former Judge of the Court of Appeal and the high Court of New Zealand; and Sir Robin Auld, a former Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Injia said the appointments of

MILA KUNGUP I congratulate the honorable member for his recent extravagant wedding. Hot on the topic in various waterholes in the city and elsewhere is the Members recent wedding where one enters Parliament Impecuniously single and marries a pretty girl in the sums of Hundreds of Thousands of kina in the absence of decent enamour. Street kid in the aspersion of a pastor, Isaac Joseph Towang got elected to be served and not to serve. Member, even necessary, you are distressed, well done member. Let me remind the leader that he was too quick to forget the very fact that his biological polygamist father left him with his mother and other siblings in cold in his infancy. Blood is ticker than water, son like father, he could very well fit into his notorious fathers shoes so should not count his chicks before they hatch. Properties purchased in Mendi and POM, vehicles hired to the Provincial Administrator and his Administration and establishing of Civil Earth Moving and Building Construction

MILA KUNGUP I congratulate the honorable member for his recent extravagant wedding. Hot on the topic in various waterholes in the city and elsewhere is the Members recent wedding where one enters Parliament Impecuniously single and marries a pretty girl in the sums of Hundreds of Thousands of kina in the absence of decent enamour. Street kid in the aspersion of a pastor, Isaac Joseph Towang got elected to be served and not to serve. Member, even necessary, you are distressed, well done member. Let me remind the leader that he was too quick to forget the very fact that his biological polygamist father left him with his mother and other siblings in cold in his infancy. Blood is ticker than water, son like father, he could very well fit into his notorious fathers shoes so should not count his chicks before they hatch. Properties purchased in Mendi and POM, vehicles hired to the Provincial Administrator and his Administration and establishing of Civil Earth Moving and Building Constru

AFP Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Michael Somare has been suspended from office for two weeks after being found guilty of 13 charges of official misconduct, his spokeswoman said Friday. A special tribunal of three judges sitting in the capital Port Moresby earlier this week found the veteran leader guilty of submitting annual financial statements, some dating back to the 1990s, late or incomplete. Late Thursday, two of the judges agreed to suspend Somare for 14 days, overruling the third who wanted the 74-year-old dismissed from office, Somare's spokeswoman and daughter Betha Somare told AFP. "It was a three-man bench and that was his dissenting opinion," she said from Port Moresby. "But we go by the majority so the opinion of the two other judges holds." The prime minister will spend the two weeks on leave in his East Sepik electorate, leaving hand-picked deputy Sam Abal in charge. In announcing the decision, tribunal chairman Roger Gyles said that ther

AFP Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Michael Somare has been suspended from office for two weeks after being found guilty of 13 charges of official misconduct, his spokeswoman said Friday. A special tribunal of three judges sitting in the capital Port Moresby earlier this week found the veteran leader guilty of submitting annual financial statements, some dating back to the 1990s, late or incomplete. Late Thursday, two of the judges agreed to suspend Somare for 14 days, overruling the third who wanted the 74-year-old dismissed from office, Somare's spokeswoman and daughter Betha Somare told AFP. "It was a three-man bench and that was his dissenting opinion," she said from Port Moresby. "But we go by the majority so the opinion of the two other judges holds." The prime minister will spend the two weeks on leave in his East Sepik electorate, leaving hand-picked deputy Sam Abal in charge. In announcing the decision, tribunal chairman Roger Gyles said t

PNGEXPOSED BLOG While many are angry and frustrated at the slap on the wrist given to Prime Minister Michael Somare after he was found guilty on 13 charges of misconduct in office, the media and other commentators seem blind to the glaring hole in the PM’s evidence to the Leadership Tribunal. On Monday, March 14, Michael Somare gave sworn evidence that he has never had any salary other than his parliamentary salary ever since he entered parliament in 1968. The PM also maintained that he never received any income from his only business, a plantation he owns in Wewak. "I have been living on a parliamentary salary from 1968 up until today; I do not have any other extra salary for any other businesses except for transport and travel allowances which are parliamentary benefits" If this is true, and the Prime Minister’s only income is his Parliamentary salary then how has he been able to fund a three year legal battle to avoid the Leadership Tribunal and how has he paid for his lar

PNGEXPOSED BLOG While many are angry and frustrated at the slap on the wrist given to Prime Minister Michael Somare after he was found guilty on 13 charges of misconduct in office, the media and other commentators seem blind to the glaring hole in the PM’s evidence to the Leadership Tribunal. On Monday, March 14, Michael Somare gave sworn evidence that he has never had any salary other than his parliamentary salary ever since he entered parliament in 1968. The PM also maintained that he never received any income from his only business, a plantation he owns in Wewak. "I have been living on a parliamentary salary from 1968 up until today; I do not have any other extra salary for any other businesses except for transport and travel allowances which are parliamentary benefits" If this is true, and the Prime Minister’s only income is his Parliamentary salary then how has he been able to fund a three year legal battle to avoid the Leadership Tribunal and how has he paid for his

SOUTH PACIFIC POST   A colourful rainbow hung over Port Moresby amid threatening rain clouds as the Prime Minister emerged from the Waigani court room smiling and waving to supporters from the left side of his official car. A man in the crowd shouted: “Sukundumi, Sunkundumi” to Sir Michael who responded with a smile and a wave. Sir Michael had claimed at one time that he is the Sukundumi – the great Sepik River God. Ministers, departmental heads, bureaucrats and members of the public who went to hear the tribunal decision waved on the PM and his entourage as they drove through the National and Supreme court car park from the back of the court buildings. Many of the East Sepik people in Port Moresby had been camping at the Prime Minister’s official Mirigini House behind the Parliament and the National Museum and Art Gallery since Wednesday. Several landowner leaders of the resources-rich Southern High-lands Province also turned up to show their support for the Prime Minister. They contr

SOUTH PACIFIC POST   A colourful rainbow hung over Port Moresby amid threatening rain clouds as the Prime Minister emerged from the Waigani court room smiling and waving to supporters from the left side of his official car. A man in the crowd shouted: “Sukundumi, Sunkundumi” to Sir Michael who responded with a smile and a wave. Sir Michael had claimed at one time that he is the Sukundumi – the great Sepik River God. Ministers, departmental heads, bureaucrats and members of the public who went to hear the tribunal decision waved on the PM and his entourage as they drove through the National and Supreme court car park from the back of the court buildings. Many of the East Sepik people in Port Moresby had been camping at the Prime Minister’s official Mirigini House behind the Parliament and the National Museum and Art Gallery since Wednesday. Several landowner leaders of the resources-rich Southern High-lands Province also turned up to show their support for the Prime Minister. They co

SUSAN MERRELL Aripaea Salmon, father of the alleged victim in the Julian Moti case died on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu on Sunday 20 March of a heart attack. Just three days earlier on March 17, in a videoed interview, he signalled his and his family’s intentions to cease co-operating with the Australian prosecution of Moti. Asked if he, his wife or his daughter intended to travel to Australia to testify, he replied, “no”. Salmon stated that he had been “swept along” in a case not of his choosing and over which his family had little control. He said the child-sex tourism charges with which Moti had been charged had been presented to the family as a fait accompli and that none of his family had made any subsequent complaint after the case was settled in Vanuatu. He said the Australian Federal Police (AFP) told them that if they did not cooperate it would “go against them.” He also admitted that he could not be sure that the offences with which Moti was charged actually occurr

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HERALD SUN An Advertiser investigation has found AusAID is investigating 175 fraud cases across 27 countries. Documents released under Freedom of Information expose a criminal trail in some of the world's poorest countries with widespread theft of cash and forging of receipts. They also show how food and other supplies are diverted from dirt-poor communities and sold on to the black market at inflated prices. While AusAID insists it is improving fraud control, the documents also reveal police are often reluctant to charge local criminals - frustrating the agency's attempts to recover missing aid money. In one case, the Eritrean Government in 2006 seized food and other supplies from the United Nation's World Food Program, saddling Australian taxpayers with a probable loss of $1.25 million. The revelations will do little to boost public confidence in a foreign aid program that is forecast to nearly double by 2015 to $8 billion a year. Papua New Guinea has emerged as Corrupti