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Showing posts with the label BPNG

PLES PIG IN THE PIGGY BANK, PM RAIDS CENTRAL BANK

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by  Andrew Arthur Amendments to the Central Banking Act facilitate Marape and Ling-Stuckey drawing down K6 BILLION from the Bank of PNG to fund the 2022 Budget deficit. Before the amendments, Section 55 of the Central Bank 2000 Act gave provision for the Central Bank to provide Temporary Advances (TAF) to Government for up to K100 million. Section 55(9) clearly states that this TAF should not be used to fund a Budget deficit of the National Government. The IAG recommended that the TAF limit and purpose be retained.  https://pngcentralbankactiag.org/report/... The advice of the IAG was just window dressing and was largely ignored and instead, Treasurer and his two advisers Misty Baloiloi & Paul Flanagan have made wholesale changes to Section 55. The amendments to the Central Bank Act allow for Temporary Advances to fund the shortfall of Government revenue paving the way to print money to fund the K6 billion budget deficit.  They have changed section 55 to increase the previous K100m

BANK OF PNG PRINTING MONEY AND FUELLING CORRUPTION

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The latest data released by the Bank of Papua New Guinea shows that the central bank has been printing money for the government, fuelling its wasteful spending. “The central bank has irresponsibly financed the Budget deficit, covered up and facilitated Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s waste and mismanagement,” former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said today. “It has contributed to the growing mountain of public debt created by Mr O’Neill – in other words the central bank has colluded in the imprudent financial activities of the O’Neill Government.” In 2016, according to data in the BPNG’s Quarterly Economic Bulletin, the bank lent almost K2 billion to the Government. Net lending to the government was K800 million in December alone. The Central Bank has lent that money to the Government because there is no appetite in the private sector – commercial banks, superannuation funds and other investors - to buy its debt instruments such as T-Bills. “The new data from the Bank of Papua

PANGU TO SACK BAKANI AND FREEZE ALL ACCOUNTS UNDER HIM AND ASSOCIATES AT BPNG

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by SAM BASIL MP Since the O’Neil PNC government took office five years ago, their mismanagement of the economy has been acknowledged by myself, representing the Opposition, on countless occasions, from the illegal UBS loan and a substantial decrease in  foreign reserves, to the lack of education and health foresight bestowed on Papua New Guineans. The lack of teaching facilities and lack of medicine as well as the manipulation of economic information on the status of our economy, is enough to inform Papua New Guineans that the O’Neil PNC government hasn’t prioritised the welfare of PNG’s population and the economy. Certain public servants are also responsible for their negligence, in conforming to the ill will of the coalition government and one of these public servants is the Governor of the Bank Of PNG (BPNG), Loi Bakani. His recent outrageous comment that the economy shouldn’t be a topic of discussion during the election, can only reflect his guilty conscience when visible

PNG’S BUDGET DEFICIT BLOW-OUT OF K628 MILLION

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by PAUL FLANAGAN This is the third and final posting on PNG’s 2016 IMF Article IV report.  The two previous posts have focused on PNG’s growth rate being much lower than claimed by the O’Neill government and PNG’s weak external position. The focus of this blog is on fiscal and monetary policy. The IMF report estimates the 2016 budget deficit will be K628 million greater than estimated by the government (so reaching 4.4% of GDP), and this feeds into greater debt levels. Government debt at the end of 2016 is estimated to be K967.3 million greater than stated by the government (and this does not include build-ups in off-budget debt such as the K3 billion in borrowings for Oil Search shares). While commending the government for its actions in the 2016 Supplementary Budget and “prudent” 2017 budget, there are concerns about where expenditure cuts have been made, the lack of effort on raising revenues (in particular from the resource sector), and the need to improv

PNG STRONGLY DEFENDS WITHHOLDING OF IMF ARTICLE IV REPORT TO COVER FOR MISSING K6.3 BILLION KINA

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by PAUL FLANAGAN SUMMARY The IMF report indicates the O’Neill government has overstated the growth rate in the PNG economy by 12.7 percentage points during its term. Primarily by 5.9 percentage points in 2014 and a further 5.2 percentage points in 2015 (see graph below). The IMF indicates the PNG economy is K6.3 billion smaller in 2017 than claimed by the government (and K5.4 billion smaller in 2016). This means the debt to GDP ratio is 33.5% in both 2016 and 2017 according to the IMF – above the 30% limit set in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The greatest concerns about economic management relate to BPNG’s control of the foreign exchange rate and reserves with more breaches of international norms than admitted. The Governor of the BPNG should explain serious discrepancies between his statements on 25 January (full page adds in the local press on 26 Janaury) and what the IMF report actually stated on 27 January (see below). While commending the government for its actions in

IMF Article IV Suppression – A Poor BPNG explanation - MORE GOVERNMENT COVERUP

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by PAUL FLANAGAN The Bank of PNG, the legislatively independent central bank for the country, lost significant credibility in its recent justification for why PNG has joined the bottom 2 per cent of countries in refusing to release the standard IMF Article IV report on countries (see here ).  It remains the only country in the East Asia and Pacific not to release an IMF Article IV report undertaken in 2016. BPNG provided six “critical issues” for refusing to release the report.  However, on closer examination, there was only one critical issue (fake GDP numbers used by the PNG Treasury).  And that should be the responsibility for the PNG Treasurer to release a statement on why the PNG was suppressing an independent assessment  by the IMF of the PNG economy. What is the O’Neill government trying to hide on its management of the PNG economy? International investors will easily through see this statement. PNG’s economic standing and credibility has received a severe down

PNG Economy – Forecasting Confusion Undermines Confidence but RECESSION CONFIRMED

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by P AUL FLANAGAN Executive Summary The 2017 Budget was a missed opportunity for restoring credibility in the Government’s economic management. Vastly different measures for GDP are included throughout the same Budget document – not a good look for international investors and credit rating agencies LNG values are assumed to increase in the 2017 Budget by 16% while recent World Bank forecasts indicate a fall of 35%. Using official BPNG figures, and updating them for the lower growth forecasts in the 2017 budget, a recession is confirmed: (using the measure most relevant for measuring progress on PNG’s living standards) real non-resource GDP per capita is expected to fall from K2,479 in 2013 to K2,282 in 201 7 this is a fall of 8% in average living standards in PNG. According to official estimates from Treasury and BPNG, it will now take until past 2023 to get back to 2013 standards of living (see graph below).  PNG is officially facing another lost decad

What is Peter O’Neill hiding at Ok Tedi Mining Ltd?

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by FRANK TASO Since he and his cronies Nigel Parker, Musje Werror, Moi Avei, Daire Vele and Jakob Weiss threw out PNG Sustainable Development, the mine has been on a death spiral. It has caught O’Neill Disease, the fatal and untreatable parasitical sickness that infects all State Owned Enterprises. O’Neill and his blood-sucking worms grow fat by siphoning all the goodness out of the host SOE, leaving just a shell requiring regular injections of taxpayer funds medicine to recover, only to be sucked dry all over again. Now O’Neill and his cronies are lining up for another feast on OTML. The Prime Minister has ordered CEO Peter Graham to rip as much money out of the business as they can and give it to the Government as soon as possible to help avoid looming bankruptcy. The OTML board is dominated by O’Neill appointees and cronies including convicted Leadership Code fraudster Moi Avei, , Treasury Secretary and wanted criminal Daire Vele, Western Province Administrator and fra

DESPERATE O'NEILL APPOINTS THE "SNAKE" LUPARI TO HEAD UP PDC (PUBLIC DEBT COMMITEE)

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by GOVERNMENT INSIDER Isaac Lupari has recently become the Chairman of Public Debt Committee,(PDC), their core function is to manage the cashflow of the country. PDC is made up of Treasury Management(Chairman), Finance Management and Bank of PNG. PM's Dept is not suppose to interfere with the operation of Treasury management. The responsibilities to raise revenue and expenditure lies with the treasury IRC, Customs and Finance according to the constitutional functions of these institutions. Never in the history of this country a Chief Secretary becomes the Chairman and manipulate the cash flow management of the country, that means, Isaac Lupari is a superfluous who is hell bent on destroying  the core functions of these constitutional institutions and politically compromise the prudential fiscal management and governance of established government institutions. Does this show that the Governor of the Central Bank, Secretaries for Treasury and Finance and their Management t

THE KING OF LIARS DOES IT AGAIN!

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by MICHAEL J. PASSINGAN On 21 March, at the PNC fund-raising – also known as the greatest gathering of thieves on earth – the Prime Minister boasted about PNG having an annual GDP growth rate of 9.2%. He said Papua New Guinea’s growth rate is the envy of many world economies – “9.2% is miles better than the global average, which is about 3% or less”.  LIES LIES LIES!  PNG’s annual GDP growth rate is 4.3%, according to the 2016 Budget papers, Volume 1, Table 1, page 107. Even worse, Treasury predicts annual GDP growth to fall to less than 3% for 2017, 2018 and 2019, according to the 2016 Budget papers, Volume 1, Chart 13 page 12.  This chart also demonstrates how O’Neill has wrecked the non-mining sectors – mainly agriculture, on which 90% of the people depend for their livelihood. His mad policies and his greed have reduced non-mining GDP growth from a high of 12% per annum in 2011 to about 3% per annum now.  MORE LIES!  He also told his dinner companions - PNC konman cr

INTERNATIONAL BONDS MARKETS AND BANKS DON'T TRUST O'NEILL LIES AFTER SOVEREIGN BOND FAILURE

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by MICHAEL JOSEPH PASSINGAN On 17 March PNG Blogs revealed that Peter O’Neill has secretly begged the World Bank for a loan of up to K1 billion. On 22 March we revealed that international agencies are about to downgrade Papua New Guinea’s credit rating once again – after already being downgraded late last year. Now some good news – the economy and national finances have been damaged so badly by O’Neill’s reckless borrowing and wasteful spending that his proposed $US1 billion sovereign bond issue is dead - D.E.A.D. This is good news because it means the nation’s indebtedness will not increase by $US1 billion in the immediate future. It means the long-suffering people will not have more debt to repay each year. IT MEANS THERE WON’T BE $US1 BILLION FOR O’NEILL TO STEAL AND WASTE The failure of the bond issue proves that international money markets won’t lend a toea to O’Neill’s corrupt regime unless it is at unaffordable penalty interest rates. Such unaffordable interest

O'NEILL'S SECRET LOAN FROM IMF/WORLD BANK SEEN AS LAST RESORT TO PROP FAILING ECONOMY

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by MICHAEL JOSEPH PASSINGAN The foreign banking system is bringing more bad news for Papua New Guineans suffering under the corruption, waste and reckless financial and economic management of the O’Neill Regime. The International Monetary Fund, an arm of the World Bank, is lending almost K1 billion so commercial banks – BSP plus the two main foreign-owned banks ANZ and Westpac – can prop up the bankrupt government of Peter O’Neill. The fact that the IMF is a lender of last resort to failed economies illustrates exactly how bad the nation’s economic and financial problems are. The fact that the O’Neill Regime and the Bank of Papua New Guinea are keeping this loan secret adds to the fears that is a very bad deal for Papua New Guinea. The K1 billion, to be managed by the central bank, will allow the commercial banks to continue to buy government investments such as Treasury Bills, Inscribed Stock and Central Bank Bills, and possibly lend more money to State-Owned Enterprises.