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Showing posts from October, 2015

PNG SHOULD BRACE FOR A LOOMING FINANCIAL CRISES - MORAUTA

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by SIR MEKERE MORAUTA   Papua New Guinea needs to take urgent action to save itself from a looming economic and financial storm, former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said today. Sir Mekere, an economist and former head of Treasury, the Bank of Papua New Guinea and other institutions, said the nation cannot continue on its present course. “The Prime Minister has had plenty of warning from his own expert advisers in Treasury and from eminent foreign institutions and observers,” Sir Mekere said. “Good senior people in Treasury have been side-lined or sacked, or shipped out if a foreigner. Anyone who raises concerns suffers personal attack from the Prime Minister. “Or, as with the peaceful protestors who gathered at Unagi Oval on 26 October, being set upon and bashed up by the Police, no doubt on orders from above. “He has ignored all advice, and now the nation is suffering the consequences.” The latest warnings come from the international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S

BE AN AGENT FOR CHANGE AND CHANGE THIS BAD GOVERNMENT

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by YAKAN LEPAKAILI ACT NOW AND BE AN AGENT FOR CHANGE AND CHANGE THIS BAD GOVERNMENT FOR BETTER PNG - OR RECOVERY ROAD WILL BE LONG, HARD AND TOUGH. BE RESPONSIBLE LEADERS AND DON’T BE IRRESPONSIBLE.  Isaac Lupari (the Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister Peter O’Neil), Dairi Vele (Secretary to Treasury Department) and Loi Bakani (Governor of Central Bank of Papua New Guinea), the trio are highly educated and most learned people in this era. They are of venerating career and distinguished people revered for contributing immensely to the country’s developments. Given their expertise in the economy, since the down turn of PNG’s economy and its continued downward slide, people like Paul Flanagan of ANU projects the gloomy outlook of PNG’s economy with comprehensive comparative tables and all these analysis never been challenged. In bewilderment, what’s intriguing is, none of the above trios, in their rebuttals, had the guts to rebut line by line and graph by grap

MOTION - SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED

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by BRYAN KRAMER   Yesterday  (Wednesday 28/10/15) Opposition has delivered on their promise to move a Motion of No Confidence against the Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. Opposition held a press conference today before serving the motion on the Acting Speaker Aide Ganasi who is the chairman of Private Business Committee (PBC). In accordance with the Standing Orders of Parliament the PBC will vet the motion to ensure it has complied with constitutional requirement s; giving no less than 1 weeks notice; signed by at least 12 MPs; nominating the next Prime Minister and is of national importance. The Clerk of Parliament will verify the signatories before it is considered by the Committee. Once approved it will be delivered back to the Clerk to list on the Notice Paper possibly for next Thursday's sitting. The motion was moved by leader of Pangu Sam Basil and the nominee is the Opposition Leader Don Polye. It seems the opposition has taken the strategic position

IS PNC INTACT? -THE INSIDE TRACK ON A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE - PART 2

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by BRYAN KRAMER This Part 2 of a two part series providing an insight into the looming vote of no confidence (VNC) against Peter O'Neill planned by the Opposition during the current session of Parliament. Part 1 covered the constitutional and procedural process that must be followed before Parliament may consider a VNC. To recap, the Constitution (section 145) stipulates that a motion of VNC may be proposed by any member of Parliament; however it must name the next Prime Minister, be signed by no less than 12 MPs, and give no less than one week’s notice in accordance with the standing orders of Parliament. Standing Orders stipulate the notice of VNC must be delivered to the Speaker of Parliament and tabled before Private Business Committee on a Wednesday to determine the motion is of national importance. It must then be delivered to Clerk of Parliament to be listed on the Notice Paper on a Thursday sitting (Private Business Day). This article will discuss ho

PNG – Pathways from Potential Crisis

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by PAUL FLANAGAN Potential crisis – what does this mean? • 3 types of crisis observed in countries through time (talk will focus on first, and some comments on second) • Fiscal crisis (PNG – first and second 1990s crises) • Government runs out of money to pay its bills. • Potentially manifested by shortage of government cash, ‘out of the ordinary’ borrowings, printing money, much higher government security interest rates. • External crisis (PNG – first and second 1990s crises) • Running out of foreign currency to pay bills (either private or more particularly government) • Potentially manifested by various forms of exchange rate controls, tariffs and quotas, foreign currency borrowings. • Muddling down crisis (more African and South American examples) • Pattern of continuing poor decision making undermining sustainable growth. • Medium to long-term timeframe – a slow bubbling crisis that may extend over a decade. • Potentially manifested by pattern of poor eco

IS PNC INTACT? -THE INSIDE TRACK ON A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

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by BRYAN KRAMER A hot political issue right now is the looming vote of no confidence against the O'Neill Government. It's an issue I have been tracking for some time and carried out a degree of research into. So will the Opposition succeed? Well it may not succeed in changing the Government but it may initiate a course of action that just succeed in removing Peter O'Neill as the head of the Government. On October 12, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare dropped a political bombshell announcing he had tendered his resignation from the National Alliance Party. It was reported Somare was concerned about how the economy was being mismanaged. He could not remain in the Party that supported the O'Neill Government and what he termed as the habitual illegal and negligent actions of Peter O'Neill as the Prime Minister. Somare's decision fuelled speculations that a vote of no confidence against O'Neill was imminent. Peter O'Neill was quick to res

IS PETER O'NEILL A MURDERER LIKE FORMER PM BILL SKATE?

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by JAMES SEMA - NIUGINI OUTLOOK   Please spread this story as much as you can throughout the social media in the hopes that some witnesses or people who have relevant details will come forward, share what they know, and let us either put this rumor to rest or develop it into a full allegation. Few of you reading this will know how good investigative journalists go about their work. It may surprise you to know that the very best ones who crack the biggest stories use many anonymous sources of information. You may think that such information carries no power, but in fact it does when you combine all the stories of the witnesses and look for common themes in what they're saying. Prophets of defeat will say that none of this is evidence. Ah but you're wrong. Witnesses without hard evidence are in fact powerful evidence. Scattered facts and details here and there can be puzzle parts put together to make up a story. That is what we're doing to further investigate a

THE NATIONAL’S EDITORIAL WAS BIASED

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by NEMO YALO*  The National (19.10.15) in its editorial labelled the Opposition’s move to bring a motion of no confidence against the Government as “premature”. Referring to the speculated motion of no confidence it opened with the line: “Has Papua New Guinea gone to the dogs?” This is a seriously preposterous and bias characterization of a healthy process of democracy. Whether a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister is tabled or not and what the outcome will be if it is voted is a matter for Parliament. What must not go unchallenged is The National’s lopsided and politically biased editorial. The editorial attempted to demonstrate balance by quoting what the Opposition and its members said in a recent press conference and then quoted the Prime Minister’s response to the Supreme Court ruling on 4 September 2015 which nullified the so-called “grace period” Constitutional amendment. The invalidated constitutional amendment granted a government 30 months i

FRANCIS AWESA SUING O’NEILL AND MALADINA OVER FRAUDULENT TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP OF COMPANY

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FRANCIS AWESA SUING O’NEILL AND MALADINA OVER FRAUDULENT TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP OF COMPANY by MICHAEL J. PASSINGAN As things get heated up in Waigani for the looming Vote of No Confidence, one of Prime Minister O’Neill’s close confidante and Minister for Works, Hon Francis Awesa is having a bitter split with his Prime Minister and close associate Jimmy Maladina,  The tales of fraud involving O’Neill and Jimmy as main characters never ceases to end. In this new drama, Works Minister Francis Awesa is taking the duo to court for illegally and fraudulently transferring his interests in one of the biggest construction companies in PNG –Global Construction Ltd. Global Construction was started in 1994 and the registered shareholder then was Kandy No. 7 Limited owned by Derek Michael Jepson, who is casually referred to as Mick Jepson.  On 1st August 1996, Mr Awesa, through his family company called Allestree No. 10 Ltd purchased about 24,999 shares from Kandy No. 7 to be a part own