PNGBLOGS

By GOVERNOR GARY JUFFA MP I see on the distant horizon, a wave approaching Papua New Guinea. It is a wave of the future and it is surely breaking on the shores of Papua New Guinea. It carries with it a great hope and inevitability where the People will be governed by the People, plotting a path to their own destiny, having full control of the steering wheel and the rudder even. The Politician and political creature will be historic anecdotes, fossils even, urban legends, mere things of the past. Here a new world will emerge whereby modern technology will provide guidance and surveillance, monitoring, enforcement, administration and punishment...there will be transparency and retribution will be swift, resources and assets carefully managed by consensus. Guided by a population of educated and intelligent citizens, assisted by groups and individuals who have vast global networks and influence, locally, regionally and internationally. Papua New Guinea will not only see the light at the en

This is the $600,000 home Petroleum Minister William Duma owns in the exclusive Cairns suburb of Redlynch. No. 38 Flindersia is described by real estate agents as: “a spectacular residence [with] 5 bedrooms and features a parents retreat upstairs with en-suite and balcony”. “Downstairs there are a further four bedrooms, separate living and media rooms and modern kitchen with stone benchtops and dishwasher. Open plan living areas open out on to two patios”. “The property is fully air-conditioned and and comes with solar hot water system”. The property is registered in the name of Willam Marra Duma: MRA CEO KEPAS WALI's 800K Cairns Property Kepis Wali is not just another public servant struggling to survive in the high cost environment of Papua New Guinea’s capital city, Port Moresby. No, Kepis is not struggling at all. As well as being able to afford life in the capital, Kepis Wali has enough money left over for a K850,000 kina house in the Cairns suburb of Bentley Park. It seems ha

This is the $600,000 home Petroleum Minister William Duma owns in the exclusive Cairns suburb of Redlynch. No. 38 Flindersia is described by real estate agents as: “a spectacular residence [with] 5 bedrooms and features a parents retreat upstairs with en-suite and balcony”. “Downstairs there are a further four bedrooms, separate living and media rooms and modern kitchen with stone benchtops and dishwasher. Open plan living areas open out on to two patios”. “The property is fully air-conditioned and and comes with solar hot water system”. The property is registered in the name of Willam Marra Duma: MRA CEO KEPAS WALI's 800K Cairns Property Kepis Wali is not just another public servant struggling to survive in the high cost environment of Papua New Guinea’s capital city, Port Moresby. No, Kepis is not struggling at all. As well as being able to afford life in the capital, Kepis Wali has enough money left over for a K850,000 kina house in the Cairns s

Papua New Guinea's treasurer has handed down an $A6.8 billion budget for 2013, plunging the developing nation more than $A1 billion into the red in a bid to improve the country's failing infrastructure. Don Polye on Tuesday announced increased spending for PNG's health, education, infrastructure and law and order sectors, as well as a plan to shift control of some state monies away from the nation's capital, Port Moresby, to provincial governments. PNG's economy is expected to grow by four per cent over the next year, substantially slower than the 9.2 per cent growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012. The deficit announced on Tuesday amounts to 7.2 per cent of PNG's GDP and is projected to decline to 5.9 per cent in 2014, before falling sharply to 1.6 per cent in 2017. Mr Polye said the next budget surplus was expected in 2017. Inflation, which dipped to four per cent year on year in 2012, is expected to climb to eight per cent in 2013, just

Papua New Guinea's treasurer has handed down an $A6.8 billion budget for 2013, plunging the developing nation more than $A1 billion into the red in a bid to improve the country's failing infrastructure. Don Polye on Tuesday announced increased spending for PNG's health, education, infrastructure and law and order sectors, as well as a plan to shift control of some state monies away from the nation's capital, Port Moresby, to provincial governments. PNG's economy is expected to grow by four per cent over the next year, substantially slower than the 9.2 per cent growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012. The deficit announced on Tuesday amounts to 7.2 per cent of PNG's GDP and is projected to decline to 5.9 per cent in 2014, before falling sharply to 1.6 per cent in 2017. Mr Polye said the next budget surplus was expected in 2017. Inflation, which dipped to four per cent year on year in 2012, is expected to climb to eight per cent in 2013,

PNGEXPOSED Blog Recently PNGexposed has posted a series of articles that scrutinize the past of Rex Paki. Paki currently sits on the Board of the PNG Sustainable Development Programmed and the Bank of PNG, in addition to being the Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority. These articles pointed out that Paki was slammed in two Commission of Inquiry reports, two Public Accounts Committee reports and an Auditor General report. In response to these articles, the Chairman of Transparency International PNG, Lawrence Stephens, who is also a Program Manager at PNGSDP, defended Paki, claiming these reports amounted to mere “unproven accusations”. PNGexposed took issue with this slight against PNG’s public accounting agencies and judicial organs, and our view was made known yesterday –  TI dismisses Commission of Inquiry findings . In response, Mr Stephens continued his defense of Rex Paki: “So where do we put a headline which points out that PNG Exposed is involved in astonishing displays of arro

PNGEXPOSED Blog Recently PNGexposed has posted a series of articles that scrutinize the past of Rex Paki. Paki currently sits on the Board of the PNG Sustainable Development Programmed and the Bank of PNG, in addition to being the Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority. These articles pointed out that Paki was slammed in two Commission of Inquiry reports, two Public Accounts Committee reports and an Auditor General report. In response to these articles, the Chairman of Transparency International PNG, Lawrence Stephens, who is also a Program Manager at PNGSDP, defended Paki, claiming these reports amounted to mere “unproven accusations”. PNGexposed took issue with this slight against PNG’s public accounting agencies and judicial organs, and our view was made known yesterday –  TI dismisses Commission of Inquiry findings . In response, Mr Stephens continued his defense of Rex Paki: “So where do we put a headline which points out that PNG Exposed is involved in astonishing disp

THE much glorified PNG LNG project, with its mega-buck promises, has now come to haunt Papua New Guinea. That is the immediate reaction from the Shadow Minister for Public Enterprise and Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang, following media reports of a further K6.9 billion equity injection needed to bring the project into fruition. “This is a scam, concocted by Exxon Mobil knowing absolutely well the vulnerable position PNG is in. The announcement unfortunately comes just a week away from the handing down of the country’s 2013 National Budget, putting further strain on it, and the Government must reject it outright,’’ he said. “Where would PNG look for the extra K1.3 billion to meet such unplanned and ill-forecast announcement when it is just about to borrow heftily from the EXIM Bank of China to fund its development agendas?” The MP fears that Papua New Guinea will now be forced to further reduce its 19.4 per cent stake in the project, which was a reduction from the mandatory 22.5 per c

THE much glorified PNG LNG project, with its mega-buck promises, has now come to haunt Papua New Guinea. That is the immediate reaction from the Shadow Minister for Public Enterprise and Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang, following media reports of a further K6.9 billion equity injection needed to bring the project into fruition. “This is a scam, concocted by Exxon Mobil knowing absolutely well the vulnerable position PNG is in. The announcement unfortunately comes just a week away from the handing down of the country’s 2013 National Budget, putting further strain on it, and the Government must reject it outright,’’ he said. “Where would PNG look for the extra K1.3 billion to meet such unplanned and ill-forecast announcement when it is just about to borrow heftily from the EXIM Bank of China to fund its development agendas?” The MP fears that Papua New Guinea will now be forced to further reduce its 19.4 per cent stake in the project, which was a reduction from the mandatory 22.