PNGBLOGS

by MICHAEL JOSEPH PASSINGAN Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has just cost Papua New Guinea almost K1.5 billion because of his reckless, corrupt and unnecessary borrowings. The loss is on the refinancing of his illegal K3 billion UBS-Oil Search loan. The deal was done in secret in Sydney earlier this month to avoid having to reveal the massive loss that the Prime Minister, UBS and Oil Search have inflicted on the nation. Details of the deal were not revealed when Kumul Petroleum MD Wapu Sonk announced it over the weekend.  Mr O’Neill’s secret loss comes at a time when the Government is virtually bankrupt, unable to pay public servants and cutting spending on essential services such as health, education and power generation.  It will add to the record and illegal levels of debt already incurred by the Prime Minister. It will contribute to further worsening of the living standards of ordinary Papua New Guineans. The refinancing of the UBS-Oil Search loan is even worse tha

by MICHAEL J PASSINGAN Recent attempts to transfer money from Papua New Guinea to Australia highlight growing concerns about money-laundering between the two countries. The Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, transferred K200 million to Australia late last year, and shortly afterwards one of his special lady friends, Ni Cragnolini, transferred K50 million. Some years before more than K100 million of public funds was washed through the Commonwealth Bank in Lismore, NSW, in a self-evidently illegal transaction. The Australian authorities refused to take action on this transfer when requested to do so by PNG. Indeed, the then Australian Treasurer, Wayne Swan, did not even bother to reply to requests for action. It is not known whether AUSTRAC, Australia’s money-laundering watchdog, stopped the latest transfers, or whether it even knew about them. It is not known whether the PNG and Australian banks involved reported the transactions as possibly suspicious. The chances are t

by MARK AMBANE Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s illegal and corrupt deal with UBS to buy 10 percent of Oil Search is now a full-scale disaster. It is threatening the viability of the 2016 Budget and could further undermine Government finances, which are already at crisis point. The State’s 150 million shares were bought in March 2014 for $8.20 each. That is a total $A1.2 billion, or about K3 billion at the exchange rate early that month. A few days later, on 14 March 2014, the Prime Minister boasted that the country had already made a profit on the shares of $A75 million (about K170 million). Today, the losses on the purchase are stupendous. Those 159 million shares were worth slightly less than $A5.70 today. That is a loss of $A400 million. At today’s exchange rate that is about K850 million. Peter O’Neill, Peter Botton of Oil Search and UBS have cost Papua New Guineans almost a billion kina. Worse still, the disastrous slide in the value of Oil

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 NRI INSIDER There was always something a little strange about the collapsing kin. First we were told by Peter O'Neill and his corrupt cronies Marape and Pruaitch that the kina wasn't going down or that the slide was only temporary. But as we saw days of kina sliding turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, that lie no longer worked. Today we have a clear graphical record of a slide in the kina that began nearly from the moment that Peter O'Neill was re-elected and took office again and has continued up to now. The Masters of Deception now admit this is the case but say that they've got everything under control. Most certainly not. If you look at the rate at which the kina has been declining against the US dollar in recent weeks you can see that the slide started becoming steeper than it was before. The Masters of Deception can lie all they want but the bare facts don't lie. An outright collapse of the kina to God knows what low levels is being pre

by MARK PARAKISAN S ensitive questions to break out the truth: WHY WAS PETER O'NEILL SO DESPERATE TO SECURE THE UBS LOAN? THE BEANS ARE SPILLING OUT. The very sad details about the UBS loan has been revealed. Knowing all this, one starts wondering why from all accounts, Peter O'Neill expressed more than happiness when the deal with through and the Oil Search shares were bought. Witne sses say he was overjoyed. Overjoyed? Anyone who knows Peter O'Neill knows that he is a man of few outward emotions. Yet, the UBS deal obviously meant something big to him. Very very big. There are 2 very obvious possibilities: Peter O'Neill was either receiving the proceeds of corrupt commissions, or he was profiting greatly off selling shares of Oil Search as the UBS loan co-occurred with the peak Oil Search price. "Corrupt commissions" are when someone with insider knowledge sets up a crony (or a relative) to be in charge of facilitating

by YAKAN LEPAKAILI Combining Corrupt Rulers, False Prophets, Ungodly Priests and Judges Bought with Bribes – Foolishness Prevails and People Perish: We are world apart in terms of time line but similarities make PNG no unique on contrast. I make this comparison in the light of unprecedented level of corruption and proliferation of gross misuse and abuse unhindered by politicians and bureaucrats at massive scale contrasting with successive governments. Corrupt rulers (both politicians & bureaucrats), false prophets, ungodly priests and paying bribes to Judges were norm during the reign of King Jotham (739 - 731 B.C) in the ancient past can’t be ignored as historical facts for school of thought. Corruption riddled infamous O’Neil regime is well and truly aided by members of the judiciary adding new dimension in the fight against corruption and in so doing, institutionalising corruption and weakening the agency’s (Fraud Squad) efforts to fight corruption whilst minority few (OC,