PNGBLOGS

YAHOO 7 Australian aid is being lost to corruption, with an estimated $1.7 million being stolen from Papua New Guinea's (PNG) budget annually. The stolen money is then brought to Australia to be hidden in our banks and the Queensland property market. Around 59 people have already been charged with corruption offences in PNG, and it is alleged much of their illegally obtained money is spent in Cairns. Professor Jason Sharman, deputy director of the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University, is a renowned expert on money laundering. Professor Sharman along with Sam Koim, head of PNG's Anti-Corruption Task Force, are on a mission to lift the lid on billions of dollars of dirty money leaving PNG to be laundered in Australia. "Corrupt politicians, and senior officials are buying houses and gambling. Obviously they need bank accounts to do so, and setting their families up here (in Australia) as well," Professor Sharman said. "Most of Australia

YAHOO 7 Australian aid is being lost to corruption, with an estimated $1.7 million being stolen from Papua New Guinea's (PNG) budget annually. The stolen money is then brought to Australia to be hidden in our banks and the Queensland property market. Around 59 people have already been charged with corruption offences in PNG, and it is alleged much of their illegally obtained money is spent in Cairns. Professor Jason Sharman, deputy director of the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University, is a renowned expert on money laundering. Professor Sharman along with Sam Koim, head of PNG's Anti-Corruption Task Force, are on a mission to lift the lid on billions of dollars of dirty money leaving PNG to be laundered in Australia. "Corrupt politicians, and senior officials are buying houses and gambling. Obviously they need bank accounts to do so, and setting their families up here (in Australia) as well," Professor Sharman said. "

Pacific Games contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) has been blacklisted by the World Bank for “fraudulent practices”. They have also been found by the Bangladeshi courts to have acquired contracts through bribery. So when CHEC was handed a massive roads deal (K318 million) by the NCD, PNGxposed’s eyebrows were raised. So were Governor Parkop’s when he discovered through a viral social media campaign what his auditors had not, and he duly suspended the contract. Now we learn CHEC has been given the contract to build the 2015 Pacific Games village at the University of PNG. According to the Good Governance Advocacy Forum the project is costed at K190 million, yet CHEC was allegedly awarded an astronomical K263 million, that is a K73 million excess. Other contractors we are told bid around K190 million. The argument that CHEC are a ‘world class’ outfit worth the extra splurge has been definitely torn apart by the Jamaican Minister for Transport, Works and Housin

Pacific Games contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) has been blacklisted by the World Bank for “fraudulent practices”. They have also been found by the Bangladeshi courts to have acquired contracts through bribery. So when CHEC was handed a massive roads deal (K318 million) by the NCD, PNGxposed’s eyebrows were raised. So were Governor Parkop’s when he discovered through a viral social media campaign what his auditors had not, and he duly suspended the contract. Now we learn CHEC has been given the contract to build the 2015 Pacific Games village at the University of PNG. According to the Good Governance Advocacy Forum the project is costed at K190 million, yet CHEC was allegedly awarded an astronomical K263 million, that is a K73 million excess. Other contractors we are told bid around K190 million. The argument that CHEC are a ‘world class’ outfit worth the extra splurge has been definitely torn apart by the Jamaican Minister for Transport, Works an

 Ramu Mine Blog Bougainville is grappling with a series of challenges that will set the course for the island’s long-term future. What economic model of development will they adopt? How will this model gel with aspirations for independence? And perhaps most controversially how does the mining question fit into this equation? Given the haste with which mining was initially imposed on Bougainville during the 1960s, and the bloody conflict the mine subsequently provoked, now is not the time to indecently rush the latter question, much less is it time for those in positions of power to confront communities with threatening ultimatums. Yet that is exactly what is happening. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), Rio Tinto (via its PNG subsidiary, BCL), the Australian government, in addition to an assortment of individuals, all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet. The hymn goes something like this: ‘If you want independence/autonomy and development, then the mi

 Ramu Mine Blog Bougainville is grappling with a series of challenges that will set the course for the island’s long-term future. What economic model of development will they adopt? How will this model gel with aspirations for independence? And perhaps most controversially how does the mining question fit into this equation? Given the haste with which mining was initially imposed on Bougainville during the 1960s, and the bloody conflict the mine subsequently provoked, now is not the time to indecently rush the latter question, much less is it time for those in positions of power to confront communities with threatening ultimatums. Yet that is exactly what is happening. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), Rio Tinto (via its PNG subsidiary, BCL), the Australian government, in addition to an assortment of individuals, all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet. The hymn goes something like this: ‘If you want independence/autonomy and development, then

By DAVID EPHRAIM Election related violence has cost state millions of money to correct democratic exercise of ballot box vote. Election related violence has continued to drag the entire country. Violence continues to pressure our judiciary system; when politician continue to battle out and pressure the courts and the rule of law. The abuse of progress and mechanism for political gain and the ability to use state resources for political gain is totally uncalled act of suppression and oppression by those who are given mandated powers.  I have come to a stage where I no longer believe in united Papua New Guinea, I have totally lost confidence in our united efforts to correct many wrongs that continue to divide and tore our country into ethnic divide. Let’s wake up to the reality, money “DON’T BUY FREEDOM, ALLIANCE, UNITY or NATIONALISM”. It’s Leadership that inspires and drives nation together. We have lost that; the reflection of what is happening in our villages to semi-developed towns