PNGBLOGS

by TEINE KOROKOI Waghi Mek Plantations Limited was by far the single biggest Coffee Exporter between 1976-1989 when it ceased operations due to landowner disputes. It spans 11 plantations form North Waghi into South Waghi in the Jiwaka Province. The company is owned by North Waghi LLG (37.5%), South Waghi LLG (37.5%) and Hunter Richard Hagon (25%). There have been many attempts to revive the plantations to no avail. During the Nation al Alliance led government, Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare allocated K2 Million to Waghi Mek Plantations for rehabilitation exercise but disappeared in the swamps of Waghi Valley. A clever move led a Wilfred Gurika and Waldam Association received the K2 million, registered a Company called Waghi Mek Plantations Holdings and laughed all the way to the bank. This year, Hon. Richard Maru has committed K20 for the rehabilitation of Waghi Mek Plantations  Limited. Jiwaka Provincial Government (JPG) does not own any shares in the company nor

by APEC INSIDERS Insiders at APEC Authority have estimated the following costs to the nation to date over the last 2 years: 1. APEC Haus construction - K300m. 2. Hilton Hotel construction contribution - K200m. 3.  Sealing of Jacksons airport (old terminal area) for 767 aircrafts to park - K70m. 4. Cruise Ship hires - K90m. 5. Joint Security task force costs including cars and bikes and boats and related cost under Police Comm etc. - K60m. 6. Hire cars -  K65m. 7. Hotels and venue hire for all the lead up meetings so far - K90m. 8. Motor vehicles including executive Praods - K50m. 9. New Maserati sports sedans - K40m. 10. Salaries for staff and consultants for staff and foreign consultants for years for both APEC Authority and APEC secretariat - K90m. 11. Travel and allowances for attending meetings etc over 2 years - K60m. 12.  Staff accommodation - K30m. 13.  Uniforms and attire we see littering Pom - K50m. 14. Banners and flyers and signages by a certain Lady'

by Spot Check Investigation “Morobe Set to Embrace US$100 Billion” was the catchy headline splashed across the front pages of Post Courier’s 8th October 2018 coverage. The prominently featured story claimed that Morobe Province was set to embrace a US$100 billion in provincial developments covering more than 60 projects. The projects are to be delivered by a company called “MPM Mining & Industrial Development Corporation Limited”, based in the Philippines with partners in the USA, and is claimed to have business investment operations in mining and financial services as well. Post Courier reported that “MPM Mining & Industrial Development Corporation co chairman Romeo Villarosa Sr said his company is ready to execute and deliver identified development projects for Morobe as soon as possible depending on how soon and ready are the plans in place for the province are put forward to them. He said Morobe is an ideal location in PNG to invest in and the com

by BRYAN KRAMER MP Today the talk on social media was the arrival of forty (40) K1 million luxury sports cars that were purchased by the O'Neill Government and flown in from Italy, a country halfway around the world or 14,000 km away. O'Neill Government placed an order for 40 Italian make Maserati Luxury Sports Cars; a vehicle that retails anywhere from AUD$210,000 to AUD$300,000. When imported into PNG it could cost close to K1 m illion after taking into account duty, clearance and freight. In the last session of Parliament, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was questioned why his Government was ripping up a perfectly good road only to reseal it. O'Neill claimed the road was in disrepair and the road works was a gift by Chinese Government at a cost of K40 million. However, what O'Neill was hiding was that they were only resealing the road just so 40, 1 million kina sports luxury cars could drive on it. K40 million would have been better sp

by  SIMON SHEN Recently I made a trip to Papua New Guinea, the remote southwestern Pacific island country that is due to host the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November. Before I set out for the place, I was warned by a number of my friends, including seasoned war correspondent Susanna Cheung Chui-yung, that Papua New Guinea has a reputation of being “the world’s most dangerous place”. Given that I got such advance warnings from my friends even in the past when I decided to travel to places such as Brazil, Paraguay, Pakistan and Palestine, I was not too perturbed. There is no shortage of stories and hearsay on the Internet about how dangerous and horrible Papua New Guinea is. Yet the more dangerous it sounded, the more I wanted to find it out myself. There is a prevailing notion that there is a structural reason behind the poor law and order conditions in Papua New Guinea, more commonly known as PNG among international travelers: the country has a w

Public statement by Sir Mekere Morauta, Member for Moresby North-West The Member for Moresby North-West, Sir Mekere Morauta, said today that very serious stories were circulating involving Oil Search paying Moran landowners K35 million owed to them by the Government to stop the landowners from shutting down the oil wells during the APEC summit, as they had threatened. “I hope these stories are not true,” he said. “But if they are, they confirm that: 1. The Government is bankrupt; and  2. Oil Search has become the cash cow for the O’Neill Government.” Sir Mekere said that not only had Oil Search allegedly offered to pay the landowners the K35 million owed by the Government under the PNG LNG Benefit Sharing Agreement, the Oil Search board had reportedly approved payment of K150 million for the Government - K35 million for the Moran landowners, a further K70 million owed to Kutubu PDL2 landowners and the balance of K45 million for unknown purposes. The former Prim

by A FORMER AIR NIUGINI PILOT Since 2015 PX has lost over 100 pilots and has been unable to replace them due to the bad testimony the management has portrayed all o ver the world by doing what they did back in 2014 to reduce pilots conditions drastically without proper consultations with the pilots. I'm one of them who got terminated just because I didn't sign a new contract (which is the cause of why plenty pilots left). I still had 2 yrs and 8 months of my current contract left but they wanted me to throw that in the bin and sign a new one just like they did to the rest of the pilots. I've been unemployed and this is my 4th year out of employment. I've been in court with the management since but you won't read of this in the biased two newspaper companies. They would only paint a good image of PX. I'm just wondering how are they going to cover up in the mainstream media about what happened this week. As it stands now overseas pilots in their right mind

by A ROSENBERG The Prolonged Abuse and Chronically ill begotten shellfish decisions to ferried 36 peoples, serviced by 8 men crews (lnternational) in 737 Jet, though has a capacity of 200 plus people to an uneconomical route/flight to former Chairman Frederick Reiher's home country just to please him at the expense of PX and PNG has resulted in this never to happen disastrous accident? How many of these sorts of runs have they been doing??? What an absolutely disgraceful act of honour for a bloke who came with nothing and turned this country's prideful airline into his backyard private airline company. Equally embarrassing was his GM Simon Foo, who set up the uneconomical route from Cairns to Rabaul direct, so he could benefit from tourist staying at his own hotel/lodge. These two guys bad procurements and plannings on staff, equipment movements and recruitments that is having a telling effect now. They happily retired themselves on hefty perks and p