PNGBLOGS

by GABRIEL RAMOI Peter O’Neill is taking PNG Global this year in its attempt to raise the first US$500million Euro Bond and the Nation is bracing itself for judgment from the international Financial Markets on whether the Country is Bankable. The Market will make a judgment on O’Neill and his lead advisers in Secretary Vele and Secretary Lupari and whether the international  Money Market has the confidence in this three Gentlemen to invest their money in PNG Inc. under their leadership.  Important also is the leadership role of the Governor of the Central Bank to manage the fall out of either a successful or negative outcome of this Bond  Offering.  This event is big for  PNG as it comes almost 40 years after independence and if Peter O’Neill successfully pulls this one off he will change the many negative perceptions the country has of him at the moment and channel all these negative energies into something positive for the country. The smooth-talking Vele and Lupari will also

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

by PETER KENGEMAR I have lived and worked amongst the Tari's for 7 golden years. They are the most caring and sharing people on this earth. But 3 calamities befall them and we all regret at some point and feel sorry at some point and am angry at some point in what has happened to them in recent times. Our hearts go out to the innocent women and children. Calamity 1.  They never ever got a good deal in the Oil project and continued to live nomadic lifestyle until LNG project and they got shut down as if they don't own the gas resources in the ground. Nothing we do today will fix the problems the Tari's face into the future until we have PNG Parliament grows the balls to review the project's agreements in favor of our resource owners and the country. Calamity 2. Mother nature decided it was D-day to strike the heartland of Hela and SHP with 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the middle of Tari country. Catastrophic events unfolded with the complete destructio

by Felix Hamdaan Oltomo There is a growing incidence of toxic leadership in organisations across the world. This is clear from anecdotal evidence as well as research which suggests that one out of every five leaders is toxic. My own research shows that close to three out of every ten leaders are toxic. This cancer of toxicity threatens the well being of both individuals and organisations. It also affects the performance of a society and country. That’s why there is a pressing need for leaders to understand the nature, dynamics and evolution of toxic leadership and organisations. The word “toxic” comes from the Greek “toxikon” which means “arrow poison”. In a literal sense, the term in its original form thus means to kill (poison) in a targeted way (arrow). Toxic organisations and leaders, therefore, are those who deliberately destroy the fabric of the institution. What makes a toxic leader? and Why? Toxic leadership represents the “dark” side of leadership. It affects indi

The Member for Moresby North-West, Sir Mekere Morauta, said today (21st March 2018) that the Treasurer’s statement that the Government would consider issuing a bond for K230 million to settle the amount owed to Nambawan Super for public servants who have already retired was a step forward in resolving the long-standing problem for the retirees. “It is not an ideal situation but it is much better than nothing,” Sir Mekere said. “These former public servants should have received their entitlements in full, including the Government’s contribution, when they retired. It is their legal entitlement. It is a disgrace that the Government can give higher priority to expenditure such as APEC rather than paying public servants their legal entitlements.” However, Sir Mekere warned the Nambawan Super board to consider very carefully the future implications of accepting equity in state-owned enterprises as payment for the remainder of the K2 billion debt. Sir Mekere said: “We all know tha

by ERAGAIRMA YAL We are a country made up of lazy citizens. About 75% of the total population are unproductive and live in the urban settings as opportunists. They live in settlements and peripheries of the urban centers totally dependent on their working relatives and or are just aimlessly residing off someone else's shelter without purpose. How can the country develop and be economically independent when the bulk of its population are lazy and live by chances and opportunities? GDP per capita is a measure of the total output of a country that takes gross domestic product (GDP) and divides it by the number of people in the country. The GDP is useful when the bulk of its citizens are productive, because it shows the relative performance of the citizens per output per year. Our country's productivity is dependent on the economic activities that are conducted in the formal and informal sectors where revenue is driven to support the government's budgetary allocation on an an

by BRYAN KRAMER MP On 21st September 2017 Kumul Petroleum Holding Limited (KPHL) a State Owned company sold off 149 million Oil Search shar es it held on behalf of Independent State of PNG (8 million people of PNG). The shares where purchased in March 2014 by O'Neill Government for AUD$1.225 Billion (K3 Billion) by securing a loan from UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) Australian Branch. Unable to repay the loan O'Neill was forced to sell the shares at a significant loss, using the proceeds from the sale to repay the balance owned on the K3 Billion loan. On 24 September 2017 the National newspaper issued a misleading report suggesting the O'Neill Government had made a windfall (gain) from the transaction. "THE Government has sold its shares in Oil Search Limited, making around K100 million from the transaction." the report stated. It went on to quote the Chairman of Kumul Holdings Moi Avei saying KPHL made about A$35 million (K87.33mil) as a result of