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SO IS PNG BROKE?

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by BRYAN KRAMER The short answer is, Yes. This is evident following the O'Neill Government’s delayed payments of the public servant salaries last Wednesday. I was first made aware of the issue a week earlier when an article was posted on social media explaining that public servants would not be paid on time due to cash-flow crisis and that the Government would blame it on the payroll system. A week later its what exactly transpired. Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, Secretary of Treasury Dairi Vele, and Secretary of Finance Dr Ken Ngangan all claimed the delay was due to the payroll system and nothing to do with being broke. Secretary of Treasury Vele issued a public statement, "Papua New Guinea is not broke!” He added that the economy was estimated to have grown by 9.9 per cent last year, driven by the ramp up of the full year of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. He further explained PNG’s economic growth was among the highest in the wor

Some criticisms of the Australian Banking System, and Government

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by MICHAEL J PASSINGAN Recent attempts to transfer money from Papua New Guinea to Australia highlight growing concerns about money-laundering between the two countries. The Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, transferred K200 million to Australia late last year, and shortly afterwards one of his special lady friends, Ni Cragnolini, transferred K50 million. Some years before more than K100 million of public funds was washed through the Commonwealth Bank in Lismore, NSW, in a self-evidently illegal transaction. The Australian authorities refused to take action on this transfer when requested to do so by PNG. Indeed, the then Australian Treasurer, Wayne Swan, did not even bother to reply to requests for action. It is not known whether AUSTRAC, Australia’s money-laundering watchdog, stopped the latest transfers, or whether it even knew about them. It is not known whether the PNG and Australian banks involved reported the transactions as possibly suspicious. The chances are t

BREAKING NEWS: PAUL PARAKA SEEKS K24 MILLION PAYMENTS

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by STEVEN ANDRE The law firm at the centre of fraud allegations involving the Prime Minister and many other high-ranking people in PNG is ‘striking again’. In a letter dated 26 th  January 2016, Paul Paraka writes to Secretary for Finance, Dr Ken Ngangen, for some outstanding payments of K24.1 million. The bills comprised of a K12.940 million principal amount as purportedly confirmed by two National Court Orders in 2007 and interest component of K11.170 million. Mr Paraka claims that the bills were cleared by the Solicitor General in 2005 and two National Court orders subsequently confirmed it. He claims that the bills were not paid in the past because there were some Supreme Court cases pending and now that the cases had been concluded in July 2014, the Department of Finance is legally obliged to make these payments, failure to which would result in contempt of court proceedings. Mr Paraka refers to a letter by the Attorney General Ano Pala dated 6 th  July 2014 to then Co

PNG's economy is a Greek tragedy in the making

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Race to recovery: poorer and younger people will be the losers from a sustained budget crisis. by PAUL FLANAGAN The past year has been a year of poor public policy and misfortune for Papua New Guinea. The country ended the year in crisis management with cash shortages and budget cuts more severe than those in Greece's austerity package. Businesses are suffering from a lack of foreign exchange to pay for imports and sales are falling. Newspaper stories are increasingly of government cash shortages – funding not being paid to meet urgent medical programs such as drug resistant TB, teacher entitlements being deferred, superannuation contributions not being deposited, little being done to deal with the most severe drought since 1997. The international ratings agencies of Moody's and Standard and Poor'

BOMANA CRIME SYNDICATE INVOLVED IN THE RELEASE AND EXECUTION OF STATE PRISONERS

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CIS INSIDER January 04, 2016, marks the first day of work in 2016 calendar year. All organizations, both public and private sectors, will commence their respective work as of today. The Department of Correctional Service will also have an old executive management team, which was re-appointed as new executive management team, on performance-based merits, by the O’Neill-Dion government, to run the CS organization in 2016 and beyond. For the purpose of good governance, transparency, Christian principle and ethics, as well as weeding out corruption in CS, for cost-savings, I openly appeal to the government, through CS Minister Jim Simatab and CS Commissioner Michael Waipo to re-establish or properly establish an independent commission of enquiry, to look into the “unattended” CS-Bomana-William Kapris prison saga that led to his illegal cell release, sex trade activities, prison murder, escapes and robberies, escape, capture, sent-off to conduct crimes, surrender and n

PRIME MINISTER KEEPS LYING ABOUT THE MOUNTING NATIONAL DEBT

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by MICHAEL J PASSINGAN Prime Minister Peter O’Neill reckless, corrupt and unnecessary borrowing is hurting families and crippling the nation with debt that future generations must pay. In 2015 actual Government debt reached K18,571.40 per household under O’Neill. That number will increase with new borrowings proposed by the Prime Minister, including the $1 billion sovereign bond issue. Families must repay O’Neill’s debt whether they like it or not. Repayment will require new domestic revenue-raising and cost-savings: Higher personal and corporate taxes as well as a 50% increase in the GST Increases in SOE fees and charges such as O’Neill’s secret rises for all MVIL services including registration and insurance A further decline in government services and outsourcing of service provision to the Prime Minister’s colleagues and cronies A fire sale of government assets and equity including SOEs such as PNG Power and Air Niugini to the Prime Minister’s col

O’Neill’s Economic recklessness Affecting Students

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by STEVEN ANDRE   CALL TO STUDENT PROTESTS As the country is plagued by the consequences of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s economic mismanagement and corruption, it has now reverberated to places that no developing country would dream of –the education sector. NO MONEY FOR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS To start with, the Government does not have the money to drive the commencement of this academic year. As was revealed by the Office of Higher Education recently, the Higher education needs K45 million to kick-start the schooling year and there appears to be no indication on the availability of those funds. Given the shortage of cash and the competing interests, the last thing O’Neill would want is for the students to take it to the streets in protests. UNEXPECTED INCREASE IN GPA The increase in GPA benchmark for scholarships was never communicated to the students last year so as to incentivize the students to worker harder to pass it. The students had a legitimate expe

Court House SAGA: Tender Evaluation Committee recommended Fletcher Morobe, worms in CSTB recommended Foreign Company for Kickbacks

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by MARK SAULEP A lot has been circulated about the Waigani Court Complex project and we need some straight talk here. Only last month, the Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Leo Dion came out publicly concerning the corruption issues surrounding the Provincial Supply & Tenders Board (PSTB) in the provinces. From social media, we are being advised that he will now chair NEC to award the Waigani National Court project to a contractor recommended by the Central Supply & Tenders Board (CSTB). A lot have been said in the News media and the social media with regard to the Waigani National Court Complex tender. The allegations of political interference was also circulated in the social media showing the letter from the Chief Justice to Min. Ano Pala and a copy of part of Tender Evaluation Committee Report (TEC). The tender for the Waigani NCC court is a public tender put out by CSTB and there was public opening. Tenders were in two parts, technical submission and financi

NEW TWIST IN THE AWARDING OF CONTRACT OF NEW COURT HOUSE - PM's LADY NII DOING EVERYTHING IN HER POWER!

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by NANCY GORO   The awarding of contract of the construction of the new Supreme and National Court Complex in Waigani worth K430 million that was being heavily politicised has taken another twist.  The twist now sees the Prime Minister getting directly involved. The National Executive Council (NEC) is set to meet this week and one agenda will be the awarding of contract for the construction of the new Court House complex Waigani.   The Prime Minister is said to be traveling out of the country when NEC meets. He has appointed Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion to chair NEC.  This sly tactic by PM is totally uncalled for and is seen to be corrupt practice and tactic. Prime Minister before travelling out has has directed his PNC Party members to support the awarding of the contract to L&A Construction a company.  L&A Construction is closely linked and associated with the PNC Party and Prime Minister O'Neil. Although L&A Constructions bid was out of the budget,