PNGBLOGS

by REGINALD HAUREVA Reference a recent letter to the Editor of the Post Courier under the  caption “Kumul Petroleum,  Petronas in the making” published on June 12,  2019, authored by one “ BUSH COMMERCIAL LAWYER OF PORT MORESBY”. The timing of this letter is quite uncanny. It was obviously timed to pre-empt and cuff the hand of Hon. James Marape MP, the new Prime Minister, who is the trustee shareholder of Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited and associated companies (“Kumul”). However, its timing betrays a tinge of fear our bush lawyer obviously harbours in the new government having its own ideas of just what role, if any,  Kumul Board and its current CEO, Mr Wapu Sonk could play, in the greater campaign to take back PNG. For information of the Bush Lawyer, the Kumul Petroleum Trustee has the power to sack any or the entire Board(s) and the CEO, if he pleases. But that is too simplistic. The fact that someone high up in Kumul obviously prompted such a letter to be written is itself s

by MICHAEL J PASSINGAN Bank South Pacific is increasingly propping up the corrupt and financially compromised O’Neill Regime, exposing itself to higher and higher risk and putting itself outside its prudential guidelines. Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, who as head of PNG Banking Corporation drove the bank into bankruptcy, forcing its merger with BSP, has been pressuring BSP to lend more and more money to his Government and his failing SOEs. Since Mr O’Neill took Government midway through 2011, BSP’s lending to the Government and Public Authorities has exploded. At the same time corruption, waste and mismanagement within Government – especially in SOEs under Minister Ben Micah – reached record levels. And it continues to increase. In 2010 BSP;’s accounts showed it had a negligible K116 million in loans to Government and Public Authorities, or 3% of its portfolio. As at 31 December 2014 (the latest full-year BSP accounts available) the bank had K1.12 billion in loans to Gov

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