PNGBLOGS

by PAUL FLANAGAN There will be a meeting of PNG’s and Australia’s business leaders in Brisbane from 30 April to 2 May 2018 – the APNGBC. The context for the meeting is pretty tough. PNG’s credit rating has just been down-graded by one international credit ratings agency and put on negative watch by another.  These are pretty rare events – only once a decade for an actual ratings downgrade. This is a tough backdrop for the Eurobond being suggested. The PNG National Statistics Office recently indicated it was downgrading the estimated size of the economy in 2015 by an extraordinary 10% – from the previous questionable PNG Treasury estimates of K62 billion down to K57 billion.  This simply  confirms what businesses have known for the last several years – outside of the resource sector, PNG has faced a very serious recession. The recent ANZ review has some very sensible suggestions on getting fairer returns from the resource sector but it also highlights the reality that PNG’s ex

by JAMES PERIAP It is very interesting that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has announced an “inquiry” into the sale of PNG Sustainable Development Program’s 100-percent-owned Cloudy Bay company, and other SDP transactions and investments. Why now? He has known about the sale for fours years and has investigated it once already, resulting in it being cleared. The reason is that he is trying once again to get his “sticky fingers” on the PNGSDP assets - $US1.3 billion in the Long-Term Fund, plus hundreds of millions of kina in cash and other investments. Cloudy Bay is one of PNGSDP’s richest assets, owning land on the outskirts of Port Moresby worth approximately K100 million. Mr O’Neill, who is known as the Octopus, desperately wants the land, and has delegated one of his criminal cronies, Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari, to look for any remotely plausible way in which it can be expropriated without payment. Illegal expropriation was the tactic used by Mr O’Neill to steal PNGSDP’s 63.4 shar

by  JACK P. KEMP 1. The Kumul Telikom Holdings Limited (KTHL) Board with Mr, Andrew Johnson as the chairman made certain decisions based on an NEC decision made in 2017 to bring all these three state-owned telecommunications companies under a single umbrella or body. 2. KTHL is the new Telikom entity - they have just changed the name Telikom PNG Limited to this. This is currently reflected in IPA database. 3. Bemobile and DataCo still exist under their own management as separate entities today. 4. The shareholder of KTHL, Kumul Consolidated Holdings applied to ICCC last year to merge all these three entities together. The ICCC refused the merger of DataCo but approved for Bemobile and Telikom PNG Limited to be merged under one entity known as Kumul Telikom Holdings Limited. 5.  Bemobile and DataCo are cash-strapped with huge debt and loan obligations from the Commercial Banks. They have serious cash flow problems. 6. Telikom PNG Limited on the hand is not broke. It has a sizable b

by BRIAN KRAMER MP I returned to Port Moresby this morning after addressing an ethnic clash in Madang, restoring peace and essential services that were cut off following a week of social unrest. An issue triggered by a clash between local people of Madang and street sellers. My trip back to the Nation's Capital is to deal with a number of unfinished business including filing formal complaint with both the Ombudsman Commission and National Fraud Anti corruption Directorate against National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop over his involvement in awarding K250,000 a month contract to a foreign fitness instructor. So it was a surprise to sight an article published by the National today, entitled "MORI: YOGA FIRM HAS HELPED MANY." It reported Minister of Commerce and Industry Wera Mori's claiming that the foreign company, Yu Yet PNG Ltd was duly-registered and met all statutory requirements to operate in the country. Minister of Commerce

Lisa Vernon was a founder member of Yu Yet, a company set up with the intention to encourage and support grass roots approaches to well-being and literacy in PNG. Lisa is a highly qualified management consultant and set up YuYet in order to offer management consultancy services.     Lisa invested considerable sums of her own money in the organisation, setting up a successful literacy training network WanpelaSkulimWanpela and offering training to literacy tutors and schools.   She would like to make it clear that during this time she received only 1,000 kina for expenses from Caritas plus 15,000 kina from NCDC for the Walk for Life programme. A considerable part of this funding was spent on supporting, transporting and feeding the young people involved in the yoga programme. These funds also contributed to her secure accommodation for one month. For the reminder of her time working on Walk for Life and WanpelaSkulimWanpela, she was accommodated by friends and funded by herself. I

by JOE MERCER “The people in my church think I’m a missionary, but I might be more of a mercenary than people think.” Lisa Michelle Vernon claimed in February 2015. She also said “So that’s why I’m in Papua New Guinea. I’m an aid worker so my job definitely fits the missionary category; my motivations are personal so I’m a bit of a mercenary. Why do I live in Port Moresby? Because I’m mental.” Lisa Vernon (pictured right) a citizen of the United Kingdom might be “more of a mercenary” than many people – including NCD Governor Powes Parkop - in Papua New Guinea (PNG) may have thought. In 2015 she was no longer employed as a volunteer Aid worker. She had ceased being an Aid worker in April 2014, according to her personal LinkedIn profile. Officers with the Department of Labour and Employment & also Immigration can check whether or not she still continued to reside in PNG and engage in employment activities whilst retaining a working visa and work permit

by Panga-Kulu Anda-Harapa After hearing Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's response on the floor of Parliament to requests by several MPs for an Independent Inquiry into the cause of the recent earthquake in Hela and 5 other provinces, PNG and all interested friends of PNG can conclude that the O'Neil government is not interested, and will go out of its way to mislead the people of PNG and their Parliament. In other democratic countries led by leaders mandated by the people, and have concern for their electors, the head of government wouldn't want to leave any stone unturned and the cause established. In this case it wouldn't only be in the interest of the O'Neil governments standing and integrity among governments of other civilized nations, but it will be in the interest of future generations of PNG and prevention of the repeat of such a calamity. To any responsible Prime Minister and his government, alarm bells will be ringing especially when the epicentre of t