PNGBLOGS

AUSTRALIA may be sheltering hundreds of millions of black dollars funnelled out of South Pacific countries by corrupt politicians and public officials, with the money laundering being tolerated by a disinterested federal government. Papua New Guinea, in particular, is believed to suffer from the avarice of some of its officials and politicians, with a senior police officer recently claiming the country loses as much as 50 per cent of its budget - about $1.9 billion - through fraud and corruption every year. The claims have been made at a Queensland conference by a governance expert, Jason Sharman. Professor Sharman called on the Australian government to drop its ''nonchalant attitude'' towards the problem, which he said hamstrings regional aid, governance and security policies. ''Recent research on grand corruption has emphasised the importance of following the money trail to determine where corrupt senior officials hide their stolen assets,'' he told th

AUSTRALIA may be sheltering hundreds of millions of black dollars funnelled out of South Pacific countries by corrupt politicians and public officials, with the money laundering being tolerated by a disinterested federal government. Papua New Guinea, in particular, is believed to suffer from the avarice of some of its officials and politicians, with a senior police officer recently claiming the country loses as much as 50 per cent of its budget - about $1.9 billion - through fraud and corruption every year. The claims have been made at a Queensland conference by a governance expert, Jason Sharman. Professor Sharman called on the Australian government to drop its ''nonchalant attitude'' towards the problem, which he said hamstrings regional aid, governance and security policies. ''Recent research on grand corruption has emphasised the importance of following the money trail to determine where corrupt senior officials hide their stolen assets,'' he tol

The Papua New Guinea government has announced a merger of the country's two main airlines, Air Nuigini and and Airlines PNG. These are among the main business and economic developments in PNG this week. Presenter: Geraldine Coutts Speaker: Rod Mitchell, joint CEO of PNG's NASFUND  MITCHELL: Sir Mekere Morauta, who was the former prime minister of PNG is now Minister for State Enterprises and his first, I guess key announcement has been the merger of the two airlines, which is Airlines PNG and Air Nuigini. Air Nuigini is the government airline and Airlines PNG is a private airline, which is listed on the Port Moresby stock exchange. The view there is that a merged entity could provide better service to more outlying regions and also engage in reduction in cost to make a single airline more efficiently and more cost-effective. The problem has been like a lot of duopolies in PNG is that there's a big business and a small business and the small business peters along. The big b

The Papua New Guinea government has announced a merger of the country's two main airlines, Air Nuigini and and Airlines PNG. These are among the main business and economic developments in PNG this week. Presenter: Geraldine Coutts Speaker: Rod Mitchell, joint CEO of PNG's NASFUND  MITCHELL: Sir Mekere Morauta, who was the former prime minister of PNG is now Minister for State Enterprises and his first, I guess key announcement has been the merger of the two airlines, which is Airlines PNG and Air Nuigini. Air Nuigini is the government airline and Airlines PNG is a private airline, which is listed on the Port Moresby stock exchange. The view there is that a merged entity could provide better service to more outlying regions and also engage in reduction in cost to make a single airline more efficiently and more cost-effective. The problem has been like a lot of duopolies in PNG is that there's a big business and a small business and the small business peters along. Th

Since the new government was formed on Aug 2, it has said and done most of the right things. It has won over the people by tacklin­g corruption and going after the corrupt. On the other hand, some recent decisions and political moves have raised a few questions. These are some of the controversial issues. 1. Merger of Air Niugini and Airlines PNG The proposed merger sponsored by Sir Mekere Morauta has not gone down well with the public and rightly so. It is common knowledge that the merger will create a monopoly and eliminate competition, causing the people to pay more for travel. Regardless of how Sir Mekere justifies his actions, the public will not buy it. His privatisation model is only suitable in developed countries with many players in the market where mergers or acquisitions will improve capitalisation, efficiency in service provision and develop a competitive mature market. Unfortunately, this is not the case in PNG as we do not have many players of similar size and capacity.

Since the new government was formed on Aug 2, it has said and done most of the right things. It has won over the people by tacklin­g corruption and going after the corrupt. On the other hand, some recent decisions and political moves have raised a few questions. These are some of the controversial issues. 1. Merger of Air Niugini and Airlines PNG The proposed merger sponsored by Sir Mekere Morauta has not gone down well with the public and rightly so. It is common knowledge that the merger will create a monopoly and eliminate competition, causing the people to pay more for travel. Regardless of how Sir Mekere justifies his actions, the public will not buy it. His privatisation model is only suitable in developed countries with many players in the market where mergers or acquisitions will improve capitalisation, efficiency in service provision and develop a competitive mature market. Unfortunately, this is not the case in PNG as we do not have many players of similar size and capacit

Affordable air travel – domestic and international – has been given as one of the reasons for the proposed merger of the country’s lea­ding airline Air Niugini with the nationally-owned Airlines PNG. Public Enterprises Minister and chairman of the Merger Implementation Committee Sir Mekere Morauta has followed his agenda of strengthening state and locally-owned companies by announcing last month that the government had endorsed an “in-principle” de­cision to combine the country’s flagship carrier with an airline company that only several years ago had offered shares in its business to the public. Sir Mekere’s rationale is mostly geared toward cost-saving measures which he stated clearly in a full page advertisement taken out in The National yesterday. Ma­king the air travel relatively inexpensive and spreading the service out to more destinations is a key point in the government’s plan. Not surprisingly, however, there have been concerns raised by Public Employees Association president