PNGBLOGS

By BRYAN KRAMER I have been tracking this issue for sometime since September 2014 when a number of service providers made known their Government Cheques were bouncing. I started to make inquires with my contacts in the Treasury and Finance Departments to confirm whether there was any truth in it. Sadly the feed back was the Government had no funds and the Department officials were given instructions to go out and look for money. While many have been praising our Government for achieving so much people failed to put thought to where all this money was coming from or whether we could afford to be spending it all. In December 2014 the Government failed to pay for the teachers leave pay. Opposition Leader Don Polye published it was because the Government had mismanaged the Country's funds. Polye challenged Prime Minister to admit to the nation that the Government has run out of cash. “There’s no money in the system, the private sector is under stress, there’s l

By SAUWAN KOMPE The call is placed on all serving Christian members and ministers in this term of Parliament rallying behind wickedly corrupt O’Steal regime to seriously consider relinquishing or would be otherwise envisaged as caught in the web of O’Steal’s corruption. The prominent names that come to the fore are; James Marape (Tari-Pori), John Pundari (Kompiam-Ambum), Bire Kimisopa (Goroka), Benny Allan (Hunggai-Bena), Ben Micah (Kevieng), Richard Maru (Yangoru-Sausia), Delilah Gore (Sohe), Jimmy Miringtoro (Bougainville), Nick Kuman (Gumini), etcetera. This current crop of so called leaders of Christian (known) faith should fight corruption tooth and nail; however, instead, knowingly backing a wickedly corrupt regime is a conscious choice participating in the web of O’Steal corruption. The theology of “come out of her my people and do not be part takers of her sin” supposedly serves as a reminder but sad to envisage the opposite is true. Continued steadfast i

Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League CEO, Brad Tassell has resigned.  In a media statement, he said “I have had enough and have informed PNGRFL Chairman Sandis Tsaka that I cannot continue anymore as CEO of the PNGRFL,” Brad Tassell. “I have been the target of a constant and malicious campaign against me since I took on the position and my health and my family have suffered because of it. I can no longer ignore it or accept it and cannot continue to perform at the high standards I set for myself. The death threats against me, the threats against my family and the continual campaign to slur, undermine and tarnish my image has got to a point where I simply cannot and do not want to do the job anymore. The pressure has been unbearable on my health, my partner and my family and I will not tolerate it anymore. As such I have informed the Chairman I will no longer continue in my role as CEO – enough is enough. I, the Board and staff are fully aware there has been a continual campaign

THE EFFECT OF THE RECENT SUPREME COURT DECISION IN THE CASE OF EREMAS WARTOTO v. THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA SC1411 (2015) (INJIA CJ, SIR SAKORA, KIRRIWOM, KANDAKASI & DAVANI, JJ) On 27th January, 2015, the Supreme Court comprised of five (5) men bench handed down a very important and landmark decision which for the first time had settled some very important confusion on procedural law in this jurisdiction. The brief factual background of the case is that Eremas Wartoto, through his company Sarakolok West Transport Limited, came up with some scoping to repair and maintain Kerevat National High School. It was a closed tender and the contract valued at K7, 989, 892. 00 was awarded to Sarakolok West Transport Limited through the office of the Department of National Planning and Monitoring. It is alleged that only K700, 000. 00 was used to do repair and maintenance works at Kerevat National High School and the balance of K7, 100, 000. 00 was app

Corruption, the single largest obstacle to socioeconomic development worldwide, has had a grave impact on the southwest Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea. While mineral resource wealth drove high gross domestic product (GDP) growth of eight percent in 2012, the country is today ranked 157th out of 187 countries in terms of human development. Key anti-corruption fighters in the country say that money laundering must be tackled to increase deterrence and ensure that stolen public funds earmarked for vital hospitals and schools do not pay for luxury assets abroad. A patronage system of governance and a culture of secrecy have led to the misappropriation of an estimated half of Papua New Guinea's development budget of 7.6 billion kina (about 2.8 billion dollars) between 2009 and 2011 -- Investigation Task-Force Sweep (ITFS) “Our police officers, school teachers and health workers live and work in very squalid circumstances,” Lawrence Stephens, chairman of Transparency Interna

Despite its significant aid program in Papua New Guinea, which delivers more than half a billion Australian dollars in assistance annually to its former colony, Australia’s influence on outcomes in Papua New Guinea has taken a remarkable dive. This is partly because the resource boom over the past decade has played a much more important role in the PNG economy, although that is now in jeopardy with the tanking of commodity prices More importantly it is because diplomatic initiative has been seriously compromised by Australia’s being beholden to the past two PNG governments over the delivery of its offshore processing strategy for refugees. The government led by Peter O’Neill would appear to have had the Australian government over a barrel with the deal it has done on refugees with recent Australian governments. The last phase of Australia’s so-called ‘Pacific Solution’ — a response to the influx of asylum seeking refugees by boat through Southeast Asia — has seen first the Rudd gov

By BRYAN KRAMER National Court presided by Chief Justice Salamo Inja this afternoon (26/2/15) dismissed a No Case Application made by Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki seeking to strike out the contempt of court proceedings against him that is currently under trial in the National Court. National Fraud & Anti-Corruption Directorate Mathew Damaru and his Deputy Timothy Guitau filed four contempt of court charges against Vaki i n relation to his alleged refusal to effect the warrant of arrest against the Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in June 2014. The trial commenced on Tuesday 24th February 2015 were plaintiffs Damaru and Guitau opened their case calling six witnesses to give evidence. Damaru and Guitau were called to give evidence as well as Police Lawyer Nicholas Nirivi, ABC foreign correspondent Liam Cochrane, Adrian Mathias of Mid Week Chronicles and Malum Nalu of National. They testified Vaki stated he would not arrest the Prime Minister. Vaki was

In recent years, smart phones have allowed developing countries to leapfrog computer technologies and connect once-isolated communities to a new world of explicit images. "What the internet has facilitated is the eclipsing of boundaries of time and space," said Dr Michael Flood, a senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of Wollongong who has published papers on pornography. "So it's possible for people in any part of the world with an internet connection to view an extraordinarily large range of pornographic material, quite regardless of the laws or regulatory regimes in their own countries." While there is no academic research focusing on PNG's internet porn habits, the situation in other parts of the world suggests conservative Christian values might actually be driving the desire for pornography. "For example in the US, Utah, which is a very conservative state, is the number one state to request pornography," said Dr Milton Diamond, eme

By PAUL AMATIO I decided to write this after reading through an article on Facebook regarding the status of our premier institution of learning, the University of Papua New Guinea and it’s sister institute, the University of Technology. I am not an educationalist nor am I familiar with the ins and outs of education per se in PNG or the policies of the Department of Education. I write this as an outsider but a citizen concerned with the direction and state of my country and the question of how my beloved country will look to my children, grandchildren and great grand children after I am long gone and forgotten. For every developing country, its greatest resource in my opinion, is it’s people – its human resource. It is renewable and non-perishable resource, yet it is one that is fragile and subject to the variances of human nature. And if not guided and nourished properly, it will destroy its parent, the country that gives each of us our sense of identity and belonging. For my country

By BRYAN KRAMER Part 4 - Process of Appeal This article is the last of a four part series providing insight into the recent criminal conviction sentencing and appeal process of three Members of Parliament, Paul Tiensten, Havilo Kavo and Francis Potape. Part 1-2 covered conviction process. Part 3 explained the process of sentencing and this final part will cover the process of appeal.  Following this post I will start publishing articles dealing with the business end of corruption that's crippling our great country. 1) How to get away with Corruption in PNG 2) How to rig an election in PNG 3) How to circumvent the Judicial System  Each article will expose how it's done and how to end it. So what is an Appeal? Under our judiciary system every decision made by a Court of Law is subject to appeal or review. This process of appeal or review involves a higher court reviewing the decision of a lower court to ensure it was fair and just in the circumstances

  PNGBlogs Contributor Network According to the 2007 SRC Determinations (2013 Revision), each State Minister is entitled to K110,760 annually in accommodation allowances while ordinary Members of Parliament (MPs) are entitled to K64,636 annually. Does Ben Micah and Loujaya Kouza have separate remuneration contracts from rest of the Members of Parliament? IPBC pays around K900,000 per annum in accommodation expenses for Micah to be residing at the Grand Papua Hotel in Port Moresby, while Kouza is living in a Hotel in Lae with her accommodation expenses fully paid for by the Lae District’s public funds. Can Sam Basil, Deputy Opposition Leader lay a complaint with the Ombudsman Commission to investigate these two leaders? While the efforts of Basil can be acknowledge in publishing information relating to what Parliamentarians are entitled to in accommodation allowances, it seems he is barking too much and not biting enough. Basil has the Parliamentary privilege

By SAUWAN KOMPE Puzzled and in bewilderment as to why high profile court cases of important significance, judgements kept delayed or cases being prolonged! Time is of essence that judgements should be delivered when expected instead of keeping the public in limbo. Continued procrastination of judgement is justice in denial in totality. Public would not accept purported explanations as a means to justify the delay. Public revere all levels of courts and out of respect, public is mute, however, public is denied of speedy proceedings frustrating aggrieved parties. Shouldn't this be corruption in a subtle form? I reckon it is! Public is entitled to form an opinion of otherwise. Delayed judgements and prolonging trial periods largely assist in institutionalising and nurturing corruption. No wonder corruption has permeated through every strata of governing system and is thriving. Technically, when judgement is delayed or trials prolonged, it absolutely does not assist the judiciary in

By KILA GAMOGA ANARE The Governments recent announcement to regulate customary compensation by legislation is a knee jerk reaction and not a well thought out policy decision. It is an indication of lack of intellectual leadership of this nation, a leadership that is not guided by a body of knowledge translated into policy garnered through research and wider consultation that is absolutely necessary for a growing country, and a democratic one. The autocratic style decisions of the O'Neill government (like the ill-advised UBS Loan) is a style that will continue to hurt this nation, like a life sentence. The government has failed to address its own failures in housekeeping, and is rushing to legislation as a solution that may end up hurting this nation more than do any good. No one disputes the fact that unreasonable road compensation demands is hurting this country. To set a statutory limit on how much can be claimed, can easily be legislated on the basis of a maximum valu

By BRYAN KRAMER Minister of Justice & Attorney General Ano Pala published a press statement on 10th February 2015 in both daily newspapers in the form of a letter addressed to Governor of Gulf, Havilo Kavo. Attorney General (AG) press statement was in response to Mr. Kavo's published media statement on 9th January 2015 and his letter to Gulf Provincial Assembly members stating that since he filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging his conviction by National Court by operation of Section 103(4) of Constitution he (Kavo) remains a Member of Parliament until his appeal is determined (decided). AG noted in his letter to Kavo that having read various numerous legal opinions and advice from his own lawyers including Kavo's lawyers he was of the considered view that given Kavo's current criminal conviction, sentencing and ensuring status as a prisoner of the state, although he remains a Member of Parliament by operation of Section 103(4) of Constitution he is