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STOP THE BLAME GAME MINISTER ZIBE

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OP.ED The blame game is not new in PNG. If we like, it is part and partial of the PNG attitude. So it is interesting to note that Health Minister Sasa Zibe does not want to be held responsible for the national doctors’ strike. As the strike rolls into its fifth day, Minister Zibe blames the strike squarely on senior public servants in the National Department of Health and the Personal Management Department. Just how are the senior management teams of the two departments feeling now that they are bluntly told by a senior state minister that they are incompetent? The log of claims has been outstanding for three years. We find it hard to swallow Zibe’s defence. As a leader, the minister must take full responsibility for the strike. The buck, we say, must stop with him. That is not to say that the bureaucrats are blameless. They too must share the blame with Zibe. The strike rolls into the fifth day. We are sure that the hospitals throughout the country are starting to feel the impact of t

STOP THE BLAME GAME MINISTER ZIBE

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OP.ED The blame game is not new in PNG. If we like, it is part and partial of the PNG attitude. So it is interesting to note that Health Minister Sasa Zibe does not want to be held responsible for the national doctors’ strike. As the strike rolls into its fifth day, Minister Zibe blames the strike squarely on senior public servants in the National Department of Health and the Personal Management Department. Just how are the senior management teams of the two departments feeling now that they are bluntly told by a senior state minister that they are incompetent? The log of claims has been outstanding for three years. We find it hard to swallow Zibe’s defence. As a leader, the minister must take full responsibility for the strike. The buck, we say, must stop with him. That is not to say that the bureaucrats are blameless. They too must share the blame with Zibe. The strike rolls into the fifth day. We are sure that the hospitals throughout the country are starting to feel the impact

Uproar over foreign judges to hear Somare’s case

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OSEAH PHILEMON The Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea Sir Salamo Injia has brought in three foreign judges to sit on the leadership tribunal to hear the misconduct charges against Prime Minister Sir Michael Thomas Somare. It will be the first time in the history of Papua New Guinea since it gained independence on 16 September 1975 that a Prime Minister has been charged by the Ombudsman Commission for breaching the Leadership Code, which applies to all leaders. Somare was the chairman of the Constitutional Planning Committee which drew up PNG’s constitution and now he will face the same law he wrote for the newly emerging nation state. The tribunal will consist of Roger Gyles AO, QC, a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia, as chairman; and the members are Sir Bruce Robertson, a former Judge of the Court of Appeal and the high Court of New Zealand; and Sir Robin Auld, a former Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Injia said the appointments of the

Uproar over foreign judges to hear Somare’s case

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OSEAH PHILEMON The Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea Sir Salamo Injia has brought in three foreign judges to sit on the leadership tribunal to hear the misconduct charges against Prime Minister Sir Michael Thomas Somare. It will be the first time in the history of Papua New Guinea since it gained independence on 16 September 1975 that a Prime Minister has been charged by the Ombudsman Commission for breaching the Leadership Code, which applies to all leaders. Somare was the chairman of the Constitutional Planning Committee which drew up PNG’s constitution and now he will face the same law he wrote for the newly emerging nation state. The tribunal will consist of Roger Gyles AO, QC, a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia, as chairman; and the members are Sir Bruce Robertson, a former Judge of the Court of Appeal and the high Court of New Zealand; and Sir Robin Auld, a former Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Injia said the appointments of

MENDI MP SHOULD COME OUT AND EXPLAIN

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MILA KUNGUP I congratulate the honorable member for his recent extravagant wedding. Hot on the topic in various waterholes in the city and elsewhere is the Members recent wedding where one enters Parliament Impecuniously single and marries a pretty girl in the sums of Hundreds of Thousands of kina in the absence of decent enamour. Street kid in the aspersion of a pastor, Isaac Joseph Towang got elected to be served and not to serve. Member, even necessary, you are distressed, well done member. Let me remind the leader that he was too quick to forget the very fact that his biological polygamist father left him with his mother and other siblings in cold in his infancy. Blood is ticker than water, son like father, he could very well fit into his notorious fathers shoes so should not count his chicks before they hatch. Properties purchased in Mendi and POM, vehicles hired to the Provincial Administrator and his Administration and establishing of Civil Earth Moving and Building Construction

MENDI MP SHOULD COME OUT AND EXPLAIN

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MILA KUNGUP I congratulate the honorable member for his recent extravagant wedding. Hot on the topic in various waterholes in the city and elsewhere is the Members recent wedding where one enters Parliament Impecuniously single and marries a pretty girl in the sums of Hundreds of Thousands of kina in the absence of decent enamour. Street kid in the aspersion of a pastor, Isaac Joseph Towang got elected to be served and not to serve. Member, even necessary, you are distressed, well done member. Let me remind the leader that he was too quick to forget the very fact that his biological polygamist father left him with his mother and other siblings in cold in his infancy. Blood is ticker than water, son like father, he could very well fit into his notorious fathers shoes so should not count his chicks before they hatch. Properties purchased in Mendi and POM, vehicles hired to the Provincial Administrator and his Administration and establishing of Civil Earth Moving and Building Constru

Papua New Guinea PM suspended for two weeks

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AFP Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Michael Somare has been suspended from office for two weeks after being found guilty of 13 charges of official misconduct, his spokeswoman said Friday. A special tribunal of three judges sitting in the capital Port Moresby earlier this week found the veteran leader guilty of submitting annual financial statements, some dating back to the 1990s, late or incomplete. Late Thursday, two of the judges agreed to suspend Somare for 14 days, overruling the third who wanted the 74-year-old dismissed from office, Somare's spokeswoman and daughter Betha Somare told AFP. "It was a three-man bench and that was his dissenting opinion," she said from Port Moresby. "But we go by the majority so the opinion of the two other judges holds." The prime minister will spend the two weeks on leave in his East Sepik electorate, leaving hand-picked deputy Sam Abal in charge. In announcing the decision, tribunal chairman Roger Gyles said that ther