PNGBLOGS

by JACOB PARAKISAN Australian Government inaction on money-laundering by corrupt Papua New Guinea politicians, their business cronies and government officials has once again been exposed by the spotlight of publicity. Evidence given in a Singapore corruption hearing shows that former Prime Minister Michael Somare and his son Arthur used bribe money to pay off residential properties bought in Cairns a few years earlier. The deal, in which Somare was secretly paid $US784,000 (K2.3 million), involved the laundering by Somare and his accomplices of $US3.6 million (K10 million) intended for setting up community colleges in PNG. The court established that the $US784,000 was deposited in Somare’s Standard Chartered bank account in three payments, labelled “housing”. One of those convicted in the Singapore money-laundering case told the court that "if you don’t pay to the PM PNG you will not be able to get business from PNG.”  Singaporean Lim Ai Wah, who was sentenced to fi

By Keen Observer The decision by the five men bench of the Supreme Court concerning the case against the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill in relation to his referral for prosecution on the UBS loan allegations does not come as a surprise to many who have been keenly following this case. This is a situation where the outcome was designed right from the beginning and all fingers point to the Public Prosecutor, Pondros Kaluwin. Mr Kaluwin is a seasoned prosecutor whose entire career was with the Public Prosecutors Office. He knows the functions and powers of his office very well. The mistake that compromised PM O’Neill’s case is very rudimentary (basic) and therefore it is beyond believe that a person in the like of Kaluwin could make an innocent mistake or a professional misjudgment on a very important case. Like I said –this was designed. The Public Prosecutor committed two cardinal yet deliberate sins that deprived the people of Papua New Guinea justice in the case again

NIUGINI OUTLOOK Yesterday the Post Courier ran the 2 big news stories side by side on the front page, giving the impression of Michael Somare being the shamed sinner and Peter O'Neill being the proclaimed victor. The National did it quite differently. They barely put the Somare Singapore kickback story on page 1, instead printing the Somare denial on Page 3 and calling him "Ex PM" in the title of the article (presumably as to not draw too much attention to the Somare name). On Page 1 they dutifully ran the "from hero to zero" story of Peter O'Neill getting off the hook on one of his long standing court cases. Both newspapers, as usual, rubbed themselves admiringly against the government, making sure the PM got all the press he needed. The Post Courier, putting the O'Neill and Somare story side by side, delivered an especially harsh and embarrassing slap to the Father of Our Country, which may or may not have been exactly what Peter O'Neill wanted

by MICHAEL PASSINGAN The wonderful thing about the social media is that at least some people involved in it try to dig deeper to uncover hidden truths.   Many were shocked when Mr Do Gooder, Kelly Naru, doing something kind of bad, like strongly endorsing the most corrupt PM in PNG's history during the recent Vote of No Confidence.  If you ask educated people living in or around Lae what they think of Naru, you hear several issues of concern: -he follows a strategy of putting his face in public places next to a face of Jesus Christ.  He puts these 2 images onto billboards, Kelly Naru with Jesus Christ in the background or above Naru's face. -before he was elected, for several years he was conspicuous in Morobe Province, giving money to this, that, and the other persons or groups.  Almost always  there happened to be a camera ready to record the event, so that both a photo and a happy story about Naru's gift giving would be published in one of the newspapers. 

by HARDI NII WOO Yesterday Peter O'Neill was pointing fingers and calling Somare and Mekere Morauta hypocrites for calling Peter O'Neill a thief. Yes, indeed they are, but that doesn't mean Peter O'Neill isn't every bit the thief like the other former Prime Ministers, with super rich Julius Chan and Paias Wingti known or alleged to have gotten rich off various schemes and scams for many years while they've held political power. Peter O'Neill should take his own advice: Only those with clean hands should point fingers. O'Neill's fingers smell like pekpek, yet once again our current alleged alleged alleged alleged alleged crook in power proclaims himself as being holier than everyone else. Our PM once again hides behind the "innocent until proven guilty" constitutional protection. "Innocent until proven guilty" only has credibility in countries where public servant investigators and prosecutors well enough resourced that th

by NEMO YALO This week is the Supreme Court week. Usually at the end of each second month, except where dates are set as special fixtures, the Court conducts trials of Supreme Court matters. Yesterday, the day started off with a bomb threat. As reported in the media an anonymous caller called the Chief Justice’s office informing of the bomb threat. Court staff and Judges stayed out of the Court premises of the Supreme Court and National Court Building in Waigani. With the turn off to the Court premise cordoned off and Lawyers and litigants were advised to wait along Independence Drive until the threat was cleared. It is commendable that the Court administration took the threat seriously and took appropriate steps to clear the threat. Whilst we hear of bombings causing mass destruction to properties and mass loss of lives in quite distant lands the perception that they only happen over there and not here thereby inviting casual approaches to such threats will be a grave mistake. I

by MICHAEL JOSEPH PASSINGAN Expert independent analysis continues to expose Prime Minister Peter O’Neill as the worst economic manager in Papua New Guinea’s history. New research published by DevPolicy Blog at the Australian National University shows that PNG is now suffering from a revenue crisis, in addition to its well-known government cash-flow and foreign exchange crises. The research shows that Government revenue has fallen back to the 2006 level of about K10 billion a year in real terms. The Prime Minister’s economic and financial recklessness has caused a K2.5 billion fall in revenue in only two years! This, combined with population growth over the 10 years of about 25 percent, explains why PNG people are suffering under Mr O’Neill like never before. Citizens’ standard of living and quality of life have been going backwards under the O’Neill Regime. The collapse in revenue since the peak of K12.5 billion in 2014 is behind the continued decline in service delivery in critica

by PETER HEWAGO As proud citizens of this country, we applaud the concerted efforts of ONeill Dion Government for implementing its coalition partners' major development policies put together in the Alotau Accord. These policies are; better infrastructure, Tuition Fee Free education, Free Basic Health, Addressing Law and Order and the government's emphasis on SME to propel our economy in this trying times amid economic difficulties as a result of sliding world commodity prices putting strain to our National Budget. These policies especially TFF within the rheem of education sector, infrastructure development and SME have stood out among others which have directly impacted lives of the people in most parts of this country giving glimpses of hope for better and encouraging PNGeans to be wealthy. However, certain self-centred Members of Parliament (MP) and senior State Ministers have taken  advantage of the complacent and ignorant attitude of our people and have decided

DEV POLICY The 2016 Papua New Guinea Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) released at the end of July tells a sobering tale. 2016 revenue adjusted for inflation is back at the same level as it was a decade ago in 2006. Figure 1 shows total government revenue (including grants) back to 2000, adjusted for inflation. Comparisons are slightly complicated by the fact that PNG Treasury changed its fiscal accounting standards last year, but, in fact, as Figure 1 shows, this makes little difference on the revenue side. Figure 1: Revenue (including grants) adjusted for inflation, 2000 to 2016 Source and notes for all figures: Treasury budget documents and BPNG; PNG Treasury switched this year from GFS1986 to GFS2012 accounting standards; 2016 are MYEFO estimates; earlier years are actuals. The data presented in this post can be found in this Excel spreadsheet [.xlsx]. With population some 25% greater than a decade ago, it’s a dire situation for service deli