PNGBLOGS

PNGBLOGS WHO IS RESPONSIBLE, LUPARI, THE CHINESE, OR WHO? IF PNGBLOGS GOES BLACK ON PNG COMPUTER SCREENS NEXT WEEK, WE WILL KNOW WHY - IT WILL BE THE RE-CREATION OF A P AUL PARAKA BANANA REPUBLIC STYLE THREAT THAT FINALLY WORKED: In 2010, Paul Paraka, the number one corrupt lawyer in the country according to the Commission of Inquiry into Department of Finance fake payment scams, did something that even today goes down as one of the most banana republic kinds of reactions ever seen in PNG. Here's what happened. When the government Commission of Inquiry on massive theft totally hundreds of millions of kina submitted their report in Parliament, Paraka immediately obtained a court injunction to make it illegal for any Papua New Guinean to read or be in possession of the report and learn about the allegations against him and 18 other lawyers. Included amongst the accused is current Chief Minister Isaac Lupari, alleged to have stolen more than K2.7 million. Paraka's strateg

by PNGBLOGS The recent front-page stories on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill “confronting” facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg do more than highlight the ethical failings of the Post-Courier and the National. They also highlight the hypocrisy and dishonesty of Mr O’Neill himself. The Prime Minister complains about Facebook as being “disruptive”, and its content “misleading and incorrect”, “misinformation and malicious lies.” The problem for Mr O’Neill is that he himself is one of the worst offenders on Facebook. He has been caught lying on Facebook innumerable times. Worse, he actually pays Facebook to propagate his lies. The Prime Minister’s Office is so distrusted by the public and social media that it has now been forced to use “sponsored” posts – a type of post where Facebook is paid to propagate the post much more widely than would otherwise be the case. These posts (see the accompanying sample) are advertising, not genuine posts. In any case most of the people who read Mr O

by   JT SOLOMON There is a very old PNG game that our MPs have played for many years. It involves one corrupt pollie calling another corrupt pollie corrupt without thinking. Then the pollie being accused shoots back and proclaims that the pollie who accused them is the corrupt one. They are also telling the truth. Suddenly both of them realise that the same shoe fits them both and if either one of them spills any more information about the bad things the other fellow did, the whole house of deception is likely to collapse and all the stories might come out. Then they both suffer. Suddenly all goes silent and the people of PNG remain in the dark. Just like the pollies want. We're wondering whether the same game has been played in the PNG sewers of power over the past few months. When Somare and Chan so strongly left the O'Neill government, the Prime Minister had some cutting words to give in reply. We've always heard that the PM is not above getting payback against

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

by PNGBLOGS Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s greed and corruption is on show again in the 2017 Budget, with K40 million allocated for his personal use. The slush fund is a new allocation, under the Treasury and Finance Miscellaneous category, entitled Prime Minister’s Commitments. Also in this category is K3 million for “PM’s Official Staff Determination Payouts”. Treasury and Finance Miscellaneous can be viewed on Page 187 of Volume 2a, 2017 Budget Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for National Government Departments http://www.treasury.gov.pg/html/national_budget/files/2017/Vol2a-Revenue%20and%20Expenditure%20National%20Govt%20Depts.pdf No details of the new slush fund have been given. No reference was made to it in the Treasurer’s speech. No details are available of who or what the K40 million is to be spent on. There is no evidence of any acquittal requirements. This is a slush fund pure and simple and the Prime Minister and his Treasurer are trying to keep it secret

by PNGBLOGS   Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch have been caught out in a massive Constitutional breach over state borrowings and repayment of the national debt in 2015 and 2016. Their failure to comply with Section 209 of the Constitution means all domestic debt – Treasury Bills and Inscribed Stock - issued in both years, and repayment of that debt, is technically illegal. The unlawful amount involved will be about K10 billion by the end of this year. The Constitutional breach and the failure to acknowledge and correct it highlights the incompetence and lack of integrity of the Prime Minister and Treasurer. It highlights the complete disregard by the Prime Minister and his Regime for the laws of Papua New Guinea, including the Mama Law. The Constitutional breach was identified by blogger Kessy Sawang, a financial analyst and former Deputy Commissioner of Papua New Guinea Customs Service, and Head of Secretariat of the Tax Review Se

by PNGBLOGS The 2017 Budget handed down yesterday confirms fears that the cost of APEC is far more than the K3 billion estimated by a recent International Monetary Fund report on PNG. The allocation for this year is K250 million, taking the total cost to at least K3.8 billion over the four years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The current cost of K3.8 billion will rise even more when the Budget allocation for 2018 is announced at this time next year. The IMF report stated that “the government plans to spend K3 billion over 2015-18 on the preparations for APEC 2018”. Prime Minister O’Neill told Parliament last week that “the amount mention by IMF is utterly rubbish, inaccurate and not true.” But the IMF estimate is based on figures provided by Treasury officials during meetings in 2015 and earlier this year, and is likely to be very conservative. Further increases in expenditure are possible as the Prime Minister and the APEC Coordinating Auth

by PAUL FLANAGAN   PNG’s 2017 budget was a key opportunity to demonstrate the credibility of the government’s economic management before next year’s election.  It fails. Foolish games with numbers and unrealistic assumptions severely undermine the budget’s credibility (detailed examples on the revenue and expenditure side are provided below). Indeed, the level of deception arguably approaches fraud. This preliminary assessment of the budget documents will be updated over the next few days.  Hopefully more good will be found in the detail. A major winner from the budget are overseas petroleum shareholders with proposed cuts in the company tax rate from 45 or 50% down to 30%. This will be of particular joy to Oil Search and others that will gain from a new possible Papua LNG project – but they are possibly accessing the lower rate for condensate already. PNG’s tax regime for the petroleum sector was already considered generous relative to world standards – it now will be even

by PNGBLOGS The Prime Minister has been up to his second favourite trick recently after stealing – telling lies. And once again he’s been caught out big-time, this time over the cost of holding APEC. The Prime Minister doesn’t know whether he’s telling lies or telling the truth any more – he can’t tell the difference. So PNG Blogs is going to help the Pacific’s most corrupt and useless leader with some facts about APEC costs. First of all an official IMF report stated that “the government plans to spend K3 billion over 2015-18 on the preparations for APEC 2018” Mr O’Neill told Parliament last week that “the amount mention by IMF is utterly rubbish, inaccurate and not true. How can you spend K3 billion, when the country has only K12 billion budget every year?” Note the big lie: the IMF did not say PNG was going to spend K3 billion on APEC in one year, as O’Steal claims. It said the spending was over four years – 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Furthermore, the K3 billi

by LOWEY INSTITUTE The 2016 Budget was  one of emergency  for Papua New Guinea. Adjusting to a 20% collapse in revenue caused by plummeting commodity prices and an economic slow-down, the government has implemented expenditure cuts  that are harsher  than those contained in Greece’s austerity package. In many ways, the 2016 Budget was the one PNG had to have. While commentators, including myself, have questioned the severity and the way in which cuts have been made, all agree the government could not keep spending at the pace it has been given the collapse in revenue and rapid increases in public debt. But will expenditure actually slow? And what is the true level of public debt in PNG? We can shed some light on these questions by focusing on a specific, big-ticket item of expenditure: PNG’s hosting of the APEC leaders’ meeting in 2018. Port Moresby is going through a massive transformation in preparation for this event, driven by a confusing mixture of public, private and

by JASON P KANGOMA Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch is scheduled to hand down the 2017 Budget in Parliament this week. Given that 2017 is election year, the Budget is certain to be dominated by the usual O’Neill Regime spin and deceit, along with wasteful and irresponsible spending measures. But the central feature will be drastic cuts to essential social services such as health and education, and further suffering for ordinary Papua New Guineans. Every successive O’Neill Budget has been a failure, creating more problems than they solve, and driving the nation further towards total collapse. This special PNG Blogs report reveals the ongoing damage Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s corruption, greed and mismanagement is doing to Papua New Guinea.   POVERTY INCREASING UNDER O’NEILL REGIME The new announcement by the O’Neill Regime that it has obtained a K1 billion rescue package from the Asian Development Bank proves that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s economic and finan