PNGBLOGS

by STEVEN ROLLAND As the country is fast sinking into debt and economic ruin, we are seeking answers. We know Prime Minister Peter O'Neill is a failed businessman, having failed in three (3) businesses he started before joining politics. His true success in business came when he put his hands into the public coffers. The rest is history. We cannot expect miracles from him. He is like an inexperienced mechanic who enjoys stripping all the parts of a vehicle in the pretext of fixing it but really does not know how to fix it. It will be moments when he will disappear without fixing the mess he created. Behind O'Neill's shonky economic management were a number of spivvy characters. One that PM O'Neill relied most was Dr Jacob Weiss, who provided most of the advise on structuring and procuring more loans. Jacob Weiss would attend Government Caucus meetings and mislead all the clown/naïve Members of Parliament that it was okay to borrow excessive from overseas and domes

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