PNGBLOGS

by JAMES MARAPE MP   Today I was informed of a circulation in FB and PNGBLOGS.COM website on latest Paraka Lawyers claim for money at Finance again for so call outstanding unpaid bills. Using this public forum may I confirm that this law firm unashamedly submits yet again another claim of K24.1million addressed to Finance Secretary. I was presented a copy of this claim and I feel this firm has lost its human and moral mind. For them to have the audacity to resubmit another claim after causing so much pain to some of us when in late October 2012 i instructed for State Solicitor to verify the Bills he submitted that time, yet he and few officers colluded to run four separate payments ( 14m im November 2012, 8m in Dec 2012, 6m in March 2013, 8m in May 2013). This firms appetite for money has caused many person loss of job, many family suffer, many of us fighting to clear ourselves because the firm's continuous scrupulous manner of bill submission. The taxation

by BRYAN KRAMER The short answer is, Yes. This is evident following the O'Neill Government’s delayed payments of the public servant salaries last Wednesday. I was first made aware of the issue a week earlier when an article was posted on social media explaining that public servants would not be paid on time due to cash-flow crisis and that the Government would blame it on the payroll system. A week later its what exactly transpired. Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, Secretary of Treasury Dairi Vele, and Secretary of Finance Dr Ken Ngangan all claimed the delay was due to the payroll system and nothing to do with being broke. Secretary of Treasury Vele issued a public statement, "Papua New Guinea is not broke!” He added that the economy was estimated to have grown by 9.9 per cent last year, driven by the ramp up of the full year of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. He further explained PNG’s economic growth was among the highest in the wor

by STEVEN ANDRE The law firm at the centre of fraud allegations involving the Prime Minister and many other high-ranking people in PNG is ‘striking again’. In a letter dated 26 th  January 2016, Paul Paraka writes to Secretary for Finance, Dr Ken Ngangen, for some outstanding payments of K24.1 million. The bills comprised of a K12.940 million principal amount as purportedly confirmed by two National Court Orders in 2007 and interest component of K11.170 million. Mr Paraka claims that the bills were cleared by the Solicitor General in 2005 and two National Court orders subsequently confirmed it. He claims that the bills were not paid in the past because there were some Supreme Court cases pending and now that the cases had been concluded in July 2014, the Department of Finance is legally obliged to make these payments, failure to which would result in contempt of court proceedings. Mr Paraka refers to a letter by the Attorney General Ano Pala dated 6 th  July 2014 to then Co