PNGBLOGS

As Papua New Guinea heads into the 2017 elections, it is timely to read the report by the Commonwealth Observer Group on the 2012 national elections.  It gives citizens an idea of what to expect in 18 months ­ more massive corruption by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and PNC, and the Electoral Commission. The Group that visited PNG at the time slammed the conduct of the 2012 national elections, saying “serious concerns need to be addressed for the future.” The report confirms what all Papua New Guineans know – the 2012 election, like others before it, was rigged. The findings are in keeping with the PNC­sponsored corruption that that is destroying every part of society, not just the electoral process. They show that O’Neill and PNC are rapidly destroying Parliamentary Democracy and instituting a Mugabe­style dictatorship. It is likely, considering the details of the report and the recommendations that have not been acted upon, that the 2017 elections will be rigged by PNC and the Elect

by JACK PALME JOHNSON Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his heavily corrupt National Executive Council have, on Wednesday 16th December, approved to abolish the Limited Preferential Voting (LPV) System and revert to the old system –First Past the Post. We do not know the reasoning behind this regressive Christmas gift to PNG by the O’Neill Government but well-placed sources confirm the NEC decision. This decision does not come as a surprise to Papua New Guinea, the land of bountiful tolerance and wilful ignorance. It shouldn’t be surprising at all because O’Neill Government has lost its popularity on all fronts. Economic Mismanagement, Grand Scale Corruption, Evasion, Deception, Lies, and Manipulation are among the outstanding hallmarks of PNC Party and O’Neill Administration. PM O’Neill himself has the NPF case, the Paraka Case, the UBS Leadership Tribunal and the PNG Power Generators case still hanging over him and yet continues to run this country down. Thanks to our entire

by BARRY PISIMI On or around September 2012, immediately after Peter O’Neill was installed as the Prime Minister, he (O’Neill) took a huge delegate to China, organised by his sidekick, Ni Cragnolini. It was openly reported that a loan of K6 billion was obtained from the Chinese Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) to fund certain rehabilitation of ailing infrastructures. One would have thought that PNG Powers rundown and incompatible power generation and distribution equipment would be first priority. NO! The K6 Billion was never appropriated in the 2012 National Budget, nor was it captured in the subsequent budgets in 2013, 2014 and 2015. We really don’t know whether that loan was obtained and if so, did the money ever enter PNG? One of the mandatory conditions of Exim Bank loans is that a Chinese multi-national corporation, mostly State owned enterprises, has to be nominated to deliver the projects identified by the recipient country. Under this arrangement, the funds remain in Chi

by CHARLES K MARKOP Politics is an art and if you master it well, you can maximise your gains. The front page coverage by Post Courier, released after 3 weeks of the actual event, tells many stories. Here, former Prime Minister and currently governor of Wester Highlands Province Hon Paias Wingti (PW) is openly commending that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill (PO) is doing well and he (PW) is optimistic about PNGs future under O’Neill’s leadership.  The unholy alliance between PW and PO has a rich history. PO, apart from being a Bill Skate and PNC man, was one of those persons including the Maladinas who lived off Wingti. In 2002, PW orchestrated PO’s first election victory when he (PW) mobilised his men to destroy Roy Yaki’s (MP for Ialibu Pangia at that time) ballot boxes in Nebilyer towards Southern Highlands border.  In the 2012 elections, it is open secret that Ben Micah, through his relative Ken Kaiya (Government Printer), organised extra ballot papers for PW, PO and Mic

by KOMBOL GIBSON   PNG is endowed with a $19bn oil and gas industry. The size of this industry is set to double and almost triple. It’s an exciting prospect for PNG but challenges remain for delivering that blessing to every man, woman and child in PNG. In fact the opposite is happening. PNG should be concerned. There is a large focus on Government-funded programmes in the Hela and Southern Highlands Provinces instead of a more equitable arrangement for all 21 Provinces in PNG. That is a story for another day and a subsequent article, but the upshot of this focus on Hela and SHP is that the vast majority of it ends up in the hands of elites from these Provinces that reside elsewhere, access health services in Port Moresby or overseas, send their children to school overseas, maintaining multiple wives and mistresses and invest in Port Moresby or overseas. So roughly 80% of funding that gets diverted to Hela and SHP ends up in the pockets of Ministers, MPs, senior public servants, a

by PAUL FLANAGAN PNG is a high-taxing and very high-spending country relative to its Asia Pacific peers . Most of any adjustment to the fiscal balance should therefore occur on the expenditure side. PNG is planning to do this with a drop in the expenditure to GDP ratio from the highest level ever, of 38.1% in 2013, to its lowest level ever, of 24.6% in 2020. PNG has never attempted such a fiscal consolidation – not even to recover from the fiscal crises of the 1990s. Putting this into an international perspective, PNG is seeking to adjust government expenditure by 13.5% of the economy. This is more than double the government expenditure reductions undertaken by  Greece  of 6.3% (from 51.4% of GDP in 2010 to 45.1% of GDP in 2015). Of course, PNG is not facing a Greek-style fiscal crisis (at the start of its crisis Greece had a broadly similar deficit of 11%, but a much higher public debt level of 170% of GDP), but it is planning a similar or more draconian response. PNG is seekin

by PAUL FLANAGAN   Papua New Guinea’s budget , released on 3 November and rushed through Parliament the same day, could have been so much better. Given the country’s record deficit levels, fiscal consolidation was vital even before the fall in international commodity prices. However, the proposed expenditure cuts do not match the government’s stated priorities of protecting health, education and infrastructure. They are also excessive – even more than those imposed on Greece as part of its structural adjustment program. Further, the budget suffers from factual errors relating to GDP and the external accounts, a lack of revenue effort, and inadequate transparency. This is the first of two posts providing a detailed analysis of the 2016 PNG Budget. GDP errors The budget makes a serious error in calculating PNG’s nominal GDP – and this affects all the key ratios and messaging from the budget. The nominal GDP budget estimates assume there has been no fall in LNG

by FREEDOM HOUSE   The Political Rights rating declined from 3 to 4 due to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s increasingly autocratic leadership style, including his disbanding of an anticorruption task force after he became subject of a corruption investigation. Overview:  In January 2014, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and other lawmakers faced allegations of wrongdoing involving $28 million in government fees paid to a private law firm. Taskforce Sweep, O’Neill’s special anticorruption investigation body, first concluded the allegations were unfounded, but later said new evidence supported an arrest warrant for O’Neill. Following this development, O’Neill declared Taskforce Sweep to be politically compromised and disbanded the group in June, putting the police in charge of the investigation. Acting Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki was arrested soon afterward by fraud investigators for interfering with the course of justice in relation to the case against O’Neil

CYRIL GARE A picture tells a lot of story. Likewise I present pictures here to tell about the state of students’ and lecturers’ housing facilities on campus at the University of Papua New Guinea. From the outset let me attest unreservedly that there is no malice or prejudice behind this publication except that the truth must be told.  It’s been over 20 years since I left UPNG and correctly student dormitories including all the Toa blocks (1-6), Talaigu, Poroman, Kapandu, and Niomoru as well as all the girls’ dormitories – Luavi house, Lasitawe and Dame Mary Kekedo building - have succumbed to depreciation and years of general wear and tear. At Toa 5 & 6, stocks of rubbish lie uncollected for weeks if not months, betelnut spittle everywhere. A room has stocks of empty soft drink cans piled up outside, a perfect attraction for Papuan black snakes.  At Fort banner where lecturers live, streets are filthy with rubbish and over grown trees and grass, used shopping plast

by PNGBLOGS William Titipe Powi contested for Southern Highlands Provincial Seat under Peter O’Neill’s party – People’s National Congress (PNC), in the 2012 election. On the race with him were Joseph Kopol (independent), Vincent Mirupasi (independent), Silvester Harry Komba (independent) and others. They were contesting for the seat left vacant by Anderson Agiru (current Hela Governor). At the end of the final elimination, Powi was declared winner on 27 July 2012 with a total votes of 139, 308. Before switching code into politics, Powi has been the serving as the Southern Highlands Provincial Administrator for about 10 years. Under his belt as the administrator, he delivered absolutely NOTHING to the province. He only manipulated and controlled all the administrative functions of the provincial government to suit his business and political interest. Development funds were used to pay ghost projects and then diverted into personal account to run election. For i