PNGBLOGS

by BRYAN KRAMER On Monday 11th April 2016 Members of the National Fraud and Anti-corruption Directorate charged the Prime Minister's Lawyer Ms Tiffany Twivey for one count of allegedly attempting to pervert justice. It is a criminal offence prescribed or defined under Section 136 of the Criminal Code. The provision or section is expressed in the following terms: 136 ATTEMPTING TO PERVERT JUSTICE. A person who attempts, in any way not specially defined in this Code, to obstruct, prevent, pervert or defeat the course of justice is guilty of a misdemeanour. Penalty: Imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years. The key elements to establish a person is guilty of attempting to prevent justice (1) they attempted -put a plan in action (2) with criminal intent (3) to obstruct; pervert or defeat (4) the course or administration of justice. Each and every element must be proven to the criminal standard off prove, being beyond reasonable doubt. In other words after considering the evid

by JOHN STEWARD In a remarkable turn of events, and right under the watchful eyes of all thinking Papua New Guineans, the Police Commissioner eliminates almost all potential risks at the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate, by suspending the Director Matthew Damaru, his Deputy Timothy Gitua, another senior office Joel Simitab and other officers who may have been seen solidly supporting their bosses to pursue the arrest of Prime Minister O’Neill in relation to Paul Paraka Lawyers fraudulent payments. Commissioner Baki, in a lengthy media statement attempts to justify his “weekend” actions but not many will be convinced in light of the chain of events leading up to Baki’s decisions. I have gone through the various events leading up to the actions of Baki and here is what I have compiled. (All these events are publicly reported in various media forums if you have been following), On the 5th of April 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed James Marape’s appeal to the S

PNGBLOGS Prime Minister and Ano Pala tried to use the Supreme Court Reference to stay other proceedings including the Sakora J orders in Supreme Court. The Supreme Court five men bench literally tore their application in pieces. THE Waigani National Court has refused an application filed by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and the National Executive Council to adjourn the hearing of two notices of motion relating to the legal representation of the Task Force Sweep Team chairman Sam Koim. Lawyer representing O’Neill and NEC Desmond Kipa, from Twivey Lawyers, told the court that lawyer Tiffany Twivey was in charge of the two motions and she could not be available in court because of what happened to her on Monday. Twivey stated in her affidavit that she was locked up at the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption interview room on Monday for about 14 hours with no electricity and water, which affected her physically and psychologically. Her medical certificate was submitted to the cou

by GOVERNMENT INSIDER Isaac Lupari has recently become the Chairman of Public Debt Committee,(PDC), their core function is to manage the cashflow of the country. PDC is made up of Treasury Management(Chairman), Finance Management and Bank of PNG. PM's Dept is not suppose to interfere with the operation of Treasury management. The responsibilities to raise revenue and expenditure lies with the treasury IRC, Customs and Finance according to the constitutional functions of these institutions. Never in the history of this country a Chief Secretary becomes the Chairman and manipulate the cash flow management of the country, that means, Isaac Lupari is a superfluous who is hell bent on destroying  the core functions of these constitutional institutions and politically compromise the prudential fiscal management and governance of established government institutions. Does this show that the Governor of the Central Bank, Secretaries for Treasury and Finance and their Management t

by MICHAEL.J PASSINGAN Last month Prime Minister Peter O’Neill publicly stated that the nation’s annual GDP growth rate is 9.2 percent. He said Papua New Guinea’s growth rate is the envy of many world economies – “9.2% is miles better  than the global average, which is about 3 percent or less”. That was untrue when he said it, and the Prime Minister knew it to be untrue. The growth rate for the year, according to the 2016 Budget, was 4.2 percent. But in fact PNG’s GDP growth rate at the time Mr O’Neill lied to the people was less than 4.2 percent. Confirmation of that comes with the release yesterday of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook. That authoritative document estimates PNG’s annual growth rate this year is 3.1%. This is very bad news for Papua New Guineans. It puts PNG’s GDP growth amongst the lowest in the world. But the accompanying graph shows that the situation is even worse than that. Under the corrupt, reckless and wasteful PNC Regime of Peter O’Neill, national

by GOVERNMENT INSIDER The Swiss bank UBS struck a massively controversial deal to land the PNG government with a 10 per cent stake in ASX and PNG-listed company Oil Search.  The shares as you all know costed PNG A$1.2 billion, a staggering 8 per cent of our GDP. UBS insiders describe this deal as one of the "most amazing deals" the bank has ever done due to the staggering 12.3% interest they are earning from us.  This rate is well above an average commercial banks interest rate. Others, however, say the amazing part is that the bank was able to get away with it. This lucrative deal, the PM has coerced The National Petroleum Company Board to sign on an Irrevocable Escrow Agreement to keep our 19.4% LNG revenue in a Singapore Bank account as a collateral to the collar Loan, managed/Controlled by UBS According to the Clause 14.  Of the UBS Collar Loan Agreement dated 12 March 2014, UBS AG Australia Branch will appoint a Receiver Manager to sell the Oil Search Sha

by JOHN STEWARD At the very least, she unashamedly tried to paint that picture on the eve of her arrest. But what is really the case against Twivey? Off Course, Fraud Squad Officers cannot arrest a lawyer for “merely acting on her client’s instructions”. Was she in this case? You bet! Information available in the public domain reveal that when news broke out that a Warrant of Arrest was out for the arrest of Daire Vele, Tiffany wrote to Director of Fraud Squad and advised that her client (Vele) was out of the country and would be making himself available for question as soon as he returned. She deliberately diverted the attention of the Fraud Squad Officers to ensure that her client was not arrested whilst she worked on Court documents to set aside the warrant. My inquiries with well-placed sources reveal that Tiffany acted improperly and criminally when she filed an application to set aside a warrant of arrest issued by the District Court against Daire Vele, Secretary for Trea