Posts

MERRY CHRISTMAS PNG....

Image
FROM US TO YOU, HAVE A SAFE AND MEANINGFUL HOLIDAY SEASON... SEE YOU ALL IN THE NEW YEAR..... PNGBLOGS ADMINISTRATORS

LIES, LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES PM PETER O’NEILL IS THE PNG’S CONTRADICTORY GURU

Image
By JAMES PERIAP In September 2013 in an ABC’s Four Corners program television interview with Peter O’Neill, Mr O’Neill was impeached with the allegation of his involvement with Parakagate and the NPF inquiries. He responded with the words “If there is evidence suggesting that in my dealing with anybody was corrupt, I am answerable to the same laws like anybody else. The challenge is on my critics….“ http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2013/09/23/3852506.htm O’Neill was tested against his own public pronouncements when an arrest warrant was served on him in June 2014. Instead of living up to his promise, he wielded power, removing all persons involved in his arrest including the anti-corruption team he established. On the same day, he ran to court and obtained a temporary stay order, forestalling his arrest. The temporary stay order was immediately discharged and further applications to the District and Supreme Courts were refused, paving way for O’Neill to be arrested. On 5th Ju

Papua New Guinea’s vanishing LNG export boom

Image
By   Paul Flanagan   on   December 20, 2014 PNG must adjust to lower LNG/oil prices to avoid a crisis. The PNG LNG project is still extremely important but many of the benefits of the production phase of the project have vanished because of lower prices – probably for at least a decade. This note outlines the impact of the recent oil price falls on PNG’s budget, growth rates, and balance of payments and international reserves. The broad conclusions are that: there will be  no  tax revenue from the PNG LNG project for many years; deficit and debt levels will become even more unsustainable; the 2015 growth rate will more than halve; the balance of payments will be in overall deficit even with the PNG LNG project coming to full capacity in 2016; and, without an exchange rate depreciation, PNG’s international reserves will be exhausted in two years. A policy brief  is available  which provides the technical detail of this analysis. The key findings and policy recommendations are set

The perilous state of Taskforce Sweep: an interview with Sam Koim

Image
By  Sam Koim ,  Grant Walton  and  Ashlee Betteridge  on  December 19, 2014 The head of Papua New Guinea’s anti-corruption coordinating body, Taskforce Sweep, Sam Koim, was recently in Canberra to present the challenges of fighting corruption in Papua New Guinea. You can read an edited version of his speech  here  and listen to the podcast  here . In between appointments Koim was interviewed about his work, politics and corruption in PNG. Perhaps the most alarming news about Taskforce Sweep is just how close it is to ceasing operations. After the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, ordered Taskforce Sweep be shut down earlier this year, the National Court placed  a permanent stay order  on this decision. We asked how the Taskforce was faring in light of this decision. Koim replied that the court order allowed them to continue to operate, but they are in a perilous position.  He said that: The government hasn’t given us a single Toea [the country’s smallest unit of currency] this y

Someone investigate OHE Director General, David ‘Korap’ Kavanamur’s so called Executive ‘Exotic’ Branch!

Image
By RAGA LOHIA Office of Higher Education (OHE) is becoming a “rosy garden’. Although having a few positive triumphs like completing the quality assessments of the six universities, awarding accreditation to five new institutions of higher education and having a new legislation that endorses the Office to become a Department, more thorns are growing behind closed doors at Mutual Rumana Building. Following from an earlier blog in March 2014 titled, “The Curious ways of OHE Director General David Kavanamur” this adds more smell to David’s “rosy garden.” Most of the operational decisions and changes in policy directives of the OHE are evolving from the so-called Executive “Exotic” Branch instead of Senior ranking directors and branch heads. The name sounds right but who is in this ‘Executive Exotic Branch’? The Exotic branch is not made of all senior officers like Directors and Assistant Directors but consists of; three secretaries- which is a waste of both human resources and financia

The challenges of fighting corruption in Papua New Guinea

By SAM KOIM I would like to share with you some of my experiences in fighting corruption in Papua New Guinea. My story is not unique. Stories like mine are unfortunately replicated across far too many countries around the world. I have dedicated the last few years to combatting corruption in PNG. My journey, though dangerous at times, and uncomfortable and unpleasant for my family, has been personally rewarding in ways that I could never have imagined. The challenges of fighting corruption in PNG The challenges of combating corruption in a resource rich, communal, yet diverse cultural setting such as PNG, are multifaceted. Here I outline some key factors that make the fight against corruption in PNG challenging. The first challenge is cultural . In PNG the big man syndrome – the perception that leaders in responsible government positions are beyond reproach because of their elevated status in society – shapes relationships. There is also a lack of national consciou

WAS SPEAKER THEO ZURENUOC UNDULY INFLUENCED IN 'HASTILY' RECOGNIZING DON POLYE AS THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION?

Image
During a press conference held on Thursday December 4th, 2014, incumbent Opposition Leader Hon. Belden Norman Namah said: (Transcribed) “You know fighting over positions is…it’s not a very good thing to do. We have to respect due processes and procedures that is before us in this stage, in this instance the parliamentary conventions, the rules of law and in all due respect common sense to prevail. There has been much said about the Opposition Leadership. I want to make this statement to the people of our country to the silent majority, who are out there, who have stood behind the position that Opposition has taken under my leadership from the first day of the formation of the ninth parliament up til now our stance against corruption, our stance against major breaches in the Constitution; that I want to make it very clear that the meeting held in this room immediately after the parliament had risen on the eve of Thursday last week was not called by me who is the incumbent Opposition L

CHANGING OF LEADERSHIP IS NOT A NATIONAL INTEREST

Image
By John Kerenga Gugl Ladies and Gentlemen, Observes and Critics, Visitors and Friends, Media Organizations and everyone. It is my pleasure to disseminate the truth to my lovely people of this great nation. I believe everyone shouldn't distracted or fooled themselve from this trivial political events that currently unfolded at Waigani The fact remain the fact is, what unfolded at waigani is merely "Waigani politics" and none is of significant greater beneficial to our people around this country Weather who becomes the Prime Minister or Opposition leader is absolutely immaterial and insignificant to the people of this great nation. Our leaders both in the Government and Opposition are continue to fight in a country where the system is not working for our people. So the question are: 1. Whose interests are they always trying to remove or kill each other at the wrong constitutional timing? 2. Is their fight will be benefiting or setting us free from our financial oppression

Post Sydney Mining Conference 1st - 3 rd December 2014. A Post Mortem

By GABRIEL RAMOI A  peculiar condition  observed among weak  States is the tendency of its Elite  to go on a horse and pony show in the former Colonial Metropolis  to  drum up investment opportunities in their home Country  as a panacea  for dealing  with  the growing level of poverty, crime, lawlessness  and  Urban drift that is making life difficult and uncomfortable  for these elites back at home. The Sydney  Mining  Conference is a horse and pony show that has  become Stale  as the same faces that do the rounds in Port Moresby reappear in Australia followed by a large retinue of  Public officials happy to take a break abroad at tax  payer’s expense to go shopping.  I  have lived in Port Moresby on and off for a period of over  30 years including spending time at both the University of PNG and  the university of Bomana and  I am  frighten by the current level of rural migrants that have moved into Port Moresby  since May 2014  following the successful completion of PNGs Fist LNG

PNGBLOGS NOTICE

PNGBLOGS NOTICE Legal representation for NASFUND CEO Mr Ian Tarutia has sent email to PNG Blogs stating that the post “NASFUND’s IN HOUSE FUN WHILE MEMBERS SUFFER” with a byline in the name of Taita Vagi Tau , published at the webpage http://www.pngblogs.com/2014/ 10/nasfund-having-sexy-orgy- while-members.html is sufficiently inaccurate to constitute defamation under New South Wales law (2005), being false and unfounded.  We are reviewing this claim and consulting counsel, including colleagues at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Digital Media Law Project and will update the post if so advised. In the meantime we request that readers not re-post content of aforementioned article onto other websites, create offshore mirror sites or webpages containing the article, or otherwise further spread content of this article as a courtesy to Mr Tarutia. 

While Loujaya’s Self-Advertising Lalalala Sign Boards Start To Fall Apart, Madang Secures Bigtime Funding To Build a Modern Outdoor Market for the People

Image
BY A LOCAL TOURIST On a recent trip to Lae, I was wanted see one of the newest PNG wonders of the world: the now notorious Las-Vegas Style Lalalala Sign Boards erected by the Queen of Attention, Ms Loujaya Toni Kouza. The moment I saw them with my own eyes, the first reaction was how much did those damn things cost? Coming out of our tax money of course! I studied the 2 electronic Sign Boards, one at Top Town, the other at Eriku for some time, struggling to get what I felt was my taxmoney’s worth of absorbing the colourful lalalala. After considerable thought, I concluded that Loujaya’s Lalalala Sign Boards reflect her subconscious desire for change: ever changing hair styles, ever changing dresses, ever changing yakityyak authoritative sounding talk with the goal of making her the highest profile kokonas stail meri in PNG. The messages I saw displayed on the lalalalas are information that I reckon everyone in Lae must already know. Not too educational or inf

PNG will soon be feeling the effect of Oil Search Price Slump, State Spent K3 Billion, has lost K300 Million in recent Months, Ratings Forcast "gloomy"

Image
By JEFFREY RUNDUALI The Prime Minister’s illegal USB-Oil Search deal, which he has so proudly boasted was a great deal for the people of PNG, is now in ruins, confirming predictions of economic and financial disaster because of his reckless disregard for the Constitution and the welfare of the nation. Just who will suffer the consequences of the Prime Minister’s contempt for the people and for the laws of Papua New Guinea? Not Peter O’Neill.  While he is lining his pockets and living the high life with property, bank accounts and other assets in Australia and elsewhere overseas, the people are suffering. Prices are rising to intolerable levels for the basic necessities of life, unemployment is rising, the 2015 Budget is already collapsing and the value of the kina continues to fall. People get poorer and poorer every day while politicians, konmen and cronies get richer and fatter. The Prime Minister’s illegal and financially irresponsible secret arrangements with USB and Oil Search