PNGBLOGS

by DR JAMES NAIPAO , National Doctors Association President The '100 DAYS RECOVERY PLAN' announced by the O'Neill-Abel Government in the 10th Parliament must not include increases in the INCOME TAX. This is an absolute NO. Income Tax in PNG is paid by a small working population in the Public and Private Sector, respectively. The majority of the 8-10 million PNGeans do not pay the income tax. Why crucifying the minority. Any VAT/GST increases will also further burdenise the workers and eat into their purse. This too is an ABSOLUTE NO if the O'Neill-Abel Government plans on hiking it. These two economic recovery plans if the current government is planning on taking them on board should be shelved because there will be an 'all out fall out with reproaching consequences'. The continuous blame on the global down turn of the economy may be the reason but to excessively borrow with the knowledge of the global effect is unfounded. There should be a shift

A Personal Opinion Addressed to the Minister for Housing and Urbanisation by BEN NEGINTS I commend the Minister for Housing and Urbanisation Hon. John Kaupa for coming out in the Media and frankly stating his desire to fix the problems at NHC. In this post I would like to express my opinion to the Minister in both my capacity as a Citizen and a dissatisfied service provider owed several hundreds of thousands of Kinas for services rendered to NHC since 2015. Majority of the last four years (2012 to 2016) I have witnessed NHC as a ship sailing without the guidance of a capable Captain at the helm. Being handpicked by the former Minister for Housing and Urbanisation, the previous Managing Director Mr. John Dege was an absolute disaster for NHC and its Stakeholders. Not only did he NOT possess the qualifications and experiences necessary to run a Corporate Organisation but importantly he lacked the moral and ethical decency to make him accountable and trustworthy to hold a Public Office

by MELL LAKKA Mr. Prime Minister, Papua New Guinea does not need to amend the constitution to cater for an individual's  greed. We need intelligent people to debate on controversial issues affecting our lives. I hope your newly appointed CIS Minister looks into the deplorable Prison conditions in Papua New Guinea. Having said that it begs the question, What happened to the mass killing of the prisoners last year and the year before that, its been almost two years and it seems like the government had slaughter pigs and no one even cares about it. Look at the  Correctional Institution Service of Papua New Guinea, it has been facing problems of organization, administration, training, lack of community support and finance.  So far, it has asked for and received advice and financial help from the Australian government to surmount these difficulties. The invited organizations and specialists have presented several reports with many recommendations to improve the situation. But up unti

by PAUL FLANAGAN PNG’s new government is proposing a 100 day plan. What should this consider? A good plan begins by fully understanding the challenges and opportunities facing its people. This understanding is improved by seeing how one is going relative to neighbours (comparative public policy analysis). The list below from the ADB highlights that PNG still faces massive development challenges. It is saddening to see PNG’s poor rankings. PNG’s politicians have been failing their people. On opportunities, PNG leads the world in key areas such as its cultural richness (1st), the extent of its tropical forests (3rd for the entire island), and its extraordinary biodiversity (PNG is one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world). In terms of mineral and petroleum wealth, it actually does fairly poorly – even in LNG its ranks 47 th and petroleum 62 nd (details below). In going forward, PNG needs to change its self-image of “mountains of gold in seas of oil”. This myth (at least i

by MELL LAKA I would like to shed some light with you on the proposed Bills that are being pushed by the government to be passed in parliament, namely the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) 2014. First of all it must be understood that any alteration to the Constitution must be passed by an absolute majority vote in parliament as per section 14 of the Constitution which means that the government needs the opposition's number. The introduction of the Bill (ICAC) was introduced 2014 where we saw a number of politicians and high profile individuals being investigated and prosecuted by several bodies that were not subjected to the directions of the NEC or for that matter. The purpose of the bill before parliament is to alter the Constitution by inserting a new Division under Part VIII of the constitution and that is Division 3. The purpose of Division 3 is to give effect or establish a Commission called the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The main fun

  by PAUL FLANAGAN Alotau II (see here ) fails as a vision for PNG’s future. It insults women, the rural poor, and business credibility. It insults the majority of PNG’s population by placing women’s economic empowerment as only the 89th item of its list of 90 priorities – and it does so under the heading of “PNG Immigration and Customs Services”. It makes no mention at all of women’s social empowerment – so taking action to address issues such as domestic violence and killing “witches”.  And there is also no mention of women’s political empowerment. PNG’s 111 member all male parliament will have to do better. It insults the majority of PNG’s population by having no path forward for agriculture, the source of livelihood for over 80 per cent of its population. Mentioning e-agriculture (priority 80), and only talking about reviving plantations (priority 15) is no way to deal with the malnutrition and stunting still facing too many in PNG. Much can be done to improve the produ

$12 million Chinese-built Sigiri bridge in Western Kenya collapsed before it was completed. President Uhuru Kenyatta inspected the project two weeks before the collapse. by MANISH SHARMA Editor’s note: All Pacific nations need to read this story and heed the warning before it is too late. One of you could be next. SRI Lanka has been crippled under a severe debt problem. In the last decade, it has invested billions of dollars in building huge infrastructure and most of the projects haven’t yet produced any adequate returns. Sri Lankan Government is now struggling to make payments and hence facing a severe debt crunch. Sri Lanka’s total debt stands at $64bn. About a whopping 95 per cent of all government revenues go towards debt repayment. The debt to China is eight billion dollars. Many local citizens feel the country is being sold to the Chinese. The problem is that money borrowed has been seemingly squandered on infrastructure that shows no sign of turning a pro

by PAUL RUNDUWALI You may be wondering why the counting in Southern Highlands Province is so slow except for the Ialibu-Pangia Open where O'Neill manipulated and orchestrated the voting and counting and declared himself as a winner in a dictatorship style. The reason is, it is Mr.O'Neills ploy to get the seats in SHP by force and declare his PNC Candidates. At this time, O'Neill critically needs the numbers to form the government, failure to master the numbers means, he will loose the PMs post and ends up in the opposition and thus, it is evitable that he will further spend another luxury life in  Bomana.  For this reason, O’Neill is using delay tactic in a pursuit to make all SHP seats for PNC  candidates and get the number needed to form the government.  According to insiders (names withheld)  in ,Mendi, Southern Highlands Province,   large sum of money from the ruling party (PNC)  is being brought into the province, possibly to bribe counti

by GREG KONDE THE first liquefied natural gas cargo of the PNG LNG project was loaded onto the Spirit of Hela ship on May 14, 2014.  The three markets for the PNG liquified natural gas are Japan,  China and Taiwan (primarily Japan).  The project sends 6.9 million tons of LNG to the three Asian markets per year. Founding father of the nation Sir Michael Somare said in the July 22, 2016 Post Courier that he “cannot understand how our economy is managed. Despite 250 shipments of Oil and Gas so far, there is nothing to show for (it).” He said one shipment is around USD$220 million and questioned why the government keep borrowing.  He stated that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill should tell the people the truth about the economic situation affecting the country. Exxon Mobil receives the largest portion of the income – that is to be expected as they invested far more than anyone else, an amount of $US20B (K50B). Through Kumul Petroleum Holding Limited, Papua New Guinea

by LUDWIG MASI The resignation of the Elections Advisory Committee now reveals how the PNG National Elections 2017 were adulterated and corrupted. The reasons for the resignation of this committee comprised of eminent persons might be revealed later, but what is of most concern is the timing of their decision. These are learned people with standing in the society and their decision would have been a well-thought one. The decision decimates any doubt that the PNG elections were manipulated to favour the ruling party. The Electoral Commission of Papua New Guinea is an independent constitutional body established by the Constitution. The constitutional law defines its operations and functions. An independent body comprised of the Prime Minister (or his nominee), the Opposition Leader, Parliamentary Appointments Committee Chairman and the Public Service Commission Chairman appoints the Electoral Commissioner. It is a constitutional body that receives its funding allocation by Parliam

by PAUL FLANAGAN Using PNG’s updated GDP numbers, there are new insights into PNG’s economic history. In particular, they show how bad the last four years have been: PNG’s budget deficits over the last four years are the worst in PNG’s history. From 2012 to 2016, deficits have totaled an extraordinary 23.8% of GDP This is nearly three times higher than the next worst five-year period for spiraling deficits (8.7% from 1992 to 1996 with five-year periods based on parliamentary terms). These daunting deficit figures are the driver behind the explosion in public debt from 17.3% of GDP in 2011 to 35.5% in 2016. In the 1992 to 1996 period, debt started at much higher levels (28% of GDP) but still didn’t reach 2016 levels (34.4% in 1996 vs the current 35.5% level using 2016 FBO numbers and IMF figures on 2016 GDP). There are two drivers for these historically high budget deficits. First, the massive increase in expenditure in 2012 was the largest in PNG’s history – a

Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato’s responses and comments at his media conference yesterday raise serious questions and concerns about the election and the mismanagement and irregularities that have been revealed, and confirm he is not in control of the operations. Papua New Guinea deserves more than the unsatisfactory and contradictory answers from Mr Gamato and the suspicious silence from Isaac Lupari. “Mr Gamato spent yesterday afternoon smiling away and treating legitimate questions as something to laugh about,” former Prime Minister Sir Mekere said today. “Very important questions were brushed aside as if they didn’t matter.” For example where is the electoral roll? It is extraordinary that it is still not publicly available so voters and candidates can check its accuracy. “What are Mr Gamato and Mr Lupari hiding,” Sir Mekere asked. Mr Gamato’s statement that voting would not be extended in areas where one-day polling was reduced to a handful of hours is totally

by PNG CWU Who says Mahesh Patel will settle down? This Fijian/Indian who claims to be the best Chairman in the South Pacific is still spinning his wheel of fortune in the daily operations of Telikom PNG. His Motive? To grossly devalue Telikom PNG and make it underperform in the face of competition, take this as a genuine case to NEC and recommend for TPNG to be made insolvent. Then, float the company in open market, and who buys it? Mahesh Patel and his cohorts who are closely associated with Peter O’Neil. They will then shift the gateway from PNG to Fiji, and there goes PNG! Lately, here is how he planned to do that: On the 18 th of April, the Telikom Management was under pressure from Mahesh Patel to do a submission for a Board Meeting to be held the very next day to approve a price fixture for Telikom 4G mobile in favour of Bemobile and Digicel. The Management submission contained recommendations for Telikom Board to approve a cut-off price for Telikom 4G Voice and Inte