PNGBLOGS

PM TURNBULL by PETER WARINE Australia’s nearest neighour and only colony, Papua New Guinea, is on the brink of economic collapse due to grand corruption and mismanagement of the O’Neill Government. The Public coffers have run dry early last year (2015) and PNG has there seems not much left to keep its head above the water.  PNGs economic outlook is bleak. International Rating Agencies have all downgraded PNG to negative gradings. The O’Neill Government conducted roadshows around the world to secure some more loans to ease the cash flow and foreign reserve shortages but to no avail. Even treasury bonds were used to attract investors but were seen as mere toilet papers.  The economic crises has escalated and literally, there is no money to pay the public servants salary –something that O’Neill wants covered all the time as a measure of control public dissent. Whilst trouble is brewing on the island of paradise, life is as usual downunder. Australia has never raised any form o

Race to recovery: poorer and younger people will be the losers from a sustained budget crisis. by PAUL FLANAGAN The past year has been a year of poor public policy and misfortune for Papua New Guinea. The country ended the year in crisis management with cash shortages and budget cuts more severe than those in Greece's austerity package. Businesses are suffering from a lack of foreign exchange to pay for imports and sales are falling. Newspaper stories are increasingly of government cash shortages – funding not being paid to meet urgent medical programs such as drug resistant TB, teacher entitlements being deferred, superannuation contributions not being deposited, little being done to deal with the most severe drought since 1997. The international ratings agencies of Moody's and Standard and Poor'

by SAM KOIM Is Political stability the main driver of investor confidence? I have been led, and I believe many are, to believe that political stability is needed to give investor confidence and growing the economy. This misconception of synonymising political stability to economic stability has it’s seldom appearances in public grandstanding and political discourses. This is what I've discovered in debunking this illusion. Political stability talks about the length of time a government is in power. In terms of investor confidence, it means the investors can count on the current (negotiating) government for durability and certainty of the current position. Yes, in countries and time periods with a high propensity of government collapse (political instability), growth is significantly lower than otherwise but is it really political instability that really caused decline in growth? Economists may articulate it more clearly than I, but I gather that economic s

by BRYAN KRAMER Deputy Secretary of Treasury Mr. Aloysius Hamou was formally charged by Fraud Squad yesterday (28/1/16) for allegedly approving and facilitating the unlawful procurement of K50 million to purchase two turbine generators. The funds were drawn from the Department of Treasury back in December 2013 at the direction of Secretary of Treasury, Dairi Vele acting on the instructions of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. Hamou w as charged under Section 91(1)(b) of Criminal Code, (False Claims by Officials). The provision states that a person employed in the Public Service who makes a return or statement touching any such matter that is, to his knowledge, false in any material particular, is guilty of a misdemeanour. Penalty: Imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years. Current Secretary of Treasury Dairi Vele is also facing criminal charges in relation to the same matter after the District Court issued a warrant for his arrest in July 2015. To-date V

by CHARLES K MARKOP Politics is an art and if you master it well, you can maximise your gains. The front page coverage by Post Courier, released after 3 weeks of the actual event, tells many stories. Here, former Prime Minister and currently governor of Wester Highlands Province Hon Paias Wingti (PW) is openly commending that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill (PO) is doing well and he (PW) is optimistic about PNGs future under O’Neill’s leadership.  The unholy alliance between PW and PO has a rich history. PO, apart from being a Bill Skate and PNC man, was one of those persons including the Maladinas who lived off Wingti. In 2002, PW orchestrated PO’s first election victory when he (PW) mobilised his men to destroy Roy Yaki’s (MP for Ialibu Pangia at that time) ballot boxes in Nebilyer towards Southern Highlands border.  In the 2012 elections, it is open secret that Ben Micah, through his relative Ken Kaiya (Government Printer), organised extra ballot papers for PW, PO and Mic

by PAUL FLANAGAN PNG is a high-taxing and very high-spending country relative to its Asia Pacific peers . Most of any adjustment to the fiscal balance should therefore occur on the expenditure side. PNG is planning to do this with a drop in the expenditure to GDP ratio from the highest level ever, of 38.1% in 2013, to its lowest level ever, of 24.6% in 2020. PNG has never attempted such a fiscal consolidation – not even to recover from the fiscal crises of the 1990s. Putting this into an international perspective, PNG is seeking to adjust government expenditure by 13.5% of the economy. This is more than double the government expenditure reductions undertaken by  Greece  of 6.3% (from 51.4% of GDP in 2010 to 45.1% of GDP in 2015). Of course, PNG is not facing a Greek-style fiscal crisis (at the start of its crisis Greece had a broadly similar deficit of 11%, but a much higher public debt level of 170% of GDP), but it is planning a similar or more draconian response. PNG is seekin

Madang Sunrise ; Photo Credit Jan Messersmith by MARINA WAITA PMIZ promises spin-off business for landowners but would not allow locals to participate. When one talks of project development, three major parties are involved; the investors, the government and the landowners.  There would be consultation and understanding before any agreement is signed, finalized and launched before operations begin. But has this been the trend here in Papua New Guinea? For the case of Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) in Madang Province, the answer is a big NO. There has never been proper consultation between the National Government and investors with the landowners of the Vidar site where the PMIZ project is located. The landowner’s constant struggles to make the government understand that they do not want the project seem to be falling on deaf ears. As they continue to raise concerns for the environment, potential creation of social problems and lack of real benefit in regards to

by YAKAN LEPAKAILI   The action of the deputy and acting Speaker of Parliament in the last Parliament session was well calculated and his action is not surprising but demeans the parliamentary process and democracy to say the least. This is in the light of opposition moving the motion of no-confidence notice. Initially, when deputy opposition leader sponsored the MONC, acting Speaking called it defective. The approach acting Speaker taken to make the ruling was it proper and followed the tenets of the Parliamentary Standing Orders leaves lot to be desired. The acting Speaker then returned the defective MONC notice to the sponsor to rectify the anomaly and surely resubmitted. In the second time, acting Speaker, on a Thursday, received the amended MONC notice. Whilst the opposition camp was throwing heart and soul into moving the MONC, those in the opposing team had counter plans on foot to outpace opposition. Typically, with Westminster system of governance

STATEMENT by Rt Hon Mekere Morauta, KCMG November 4 2015 The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea has once again singled me out for attack for expressing a view on current national issues. My assessment and analysis of the severe economic and financial difficulties facing the nation and the adjustments that need to be taken are entirely my own. My statements were made to promote public discussion and were published at my personal expense. Every citizen has a right to speak about national issues and challenges, and those rights should be respected by the Government.  The Prime Minister’s extraordinary attacks on me as an individual should be seen as part of a broader campaign of intimidation and attempts to shut down dissent, by force if necessary. Dissent is a sign of a healthy society. It is a sign of a robust democracy. The right to freedom of speech and the freedom to gather together publicly to express our views are precious public commodities. The Prime Minister claims t

by MICHAEL J. PASSINGAN   In a Minute dated 30/07/2015, controversial Police Commissioner Gari Baki wrote to his controversial Acting Deputy Commissioner Raphael Huafolo with the following contents: “This is to reiterate my previous instruction to the National Fraud Squad Anti-Corruption Directorate. No more Warrants of Arrests are to be obtained direct from the Courts. All requests for Warrants of Arrest by Police are to be referred to you for vetting and approval prior to referral to the Courts. Bring this to the notice of NFACD. Breaches will result in departmental action taken against officer concerned.” This minute is believed to have been circulated to all the Police throughout the country as there are fraud and corruption divisions and officers in all the provinces. PNG Blogs approached a prominent lawyer who has been practising law since the early 1990s and the lawyer bluntly said “unconstitutional and corruption at the highest level.” The lawyer said “ap

by JACKSON LEVONGO Papua New Guinea will have one of the best world's renowned  hotels. The Mineral Resource Development Company is proud to bring to Port Moresby, the first ever HILTON HOTEL. The Management agreement signed early last month between MRDC and Hilton World Wide will see the construction of a 5 star 212 premium room hotels in Port Moresby. The Hilton hotel is part of MRDC group subsidiaries latest development project, the STAR Mountain Plaza to be launched today. Under the agreement, Hilton will manage the Hotel and a convention centre within the Star Mountain Plaza. Papua New Guinea will have one of the best world's renowned    Western Province people are so naïve & gullible and gutless and continue to be fooled when their compensation monies from the Ok Tedi Mine pollution continue to be misapplied and siphoned out by use of various methods that seem legitimate with the impression of associations with world renowned company but in f