PNGBLOGS

by MICHAEL PASSINGAN   More than K3 billion a year is likely being stolen and wasted by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, his politicians, and their public service and private sector cronies. Over the five-year life of the O’Neill regime, they have likely stolen or wasted more than K15 billion. These estimates are based on figures made public by the Prime Minister himself, Works Minister Francis Awesa and the head of Task Force Sweep, Sam Koim. They demonstrate the enormous cost to the nation and the people of Papua New Guinea of O’Neill’s corruption and incompetence. They show that the rate of theft and other forms of corruption and waste under Peter O’Neill continues to increase. If O’Neill and his cronies had not stolen or misused K15 billion, Papua New Guinea would not be suffering from the current economic crisis. If the O’Neill regime had acted honestly, responsibly and competently, the decline in national development and service delivery could have been reversed. Instead, there h

by PAUL FLANAGAN   The PNG Government released its Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook ( MYEFO ) on Monday – the update on the 2015 budget. The estimated budget deficit for 2015 blows out from an already high budgeted 4.4% of GDP to 9.4%. This would be the highest in PNG’s history. Public debt levels are expected to skyrocket from the earlier estimate of 27.8% of GDP to 41.3%. In Australia, such a rapid change in the estimated fiscal position would go well beyond being termed “a budget crisis”. PNG’s official figures are much worse than at the time of PNG’s last economic crisis at the end of the 1990s (see graph below). PNG expenditure and revenues as a share of GDP – with updated figures from 2015 MYEFO Note: The gap between the lines indicates the size of the government deficit or surplus. Both lines exclude grants (aid). The drivers for the rapid deterioration in PNG’s fiscal situation are the fall in international commodity prices, a growth slow down as well