PNGBLOGS

by MICHAEL PASSINGAN Minister Duma is scheming again to buy more assets own by MVIL after the much publicised Manumanu land purchase issue has been subsided. Pac Re Limited is a Re- Insurance company based in Port Moresby. Motor Vehicle Insurance Limited is a major shareholder owning 53 percent of the shares. The balance of the shares is shared between Tower Insurance and QBE Insurance. MVIL also owns the land and the houses at Koki in Port Moresby next to the Koki Primary School. The value of the property is estimated to be around K14 million. The Minister is now working around the clock to buy MVIL shares in Pac Re Limited and the Koki properties deceptively through the normal company asset disposal plan. However, it is not easy to get the asset disposal factored into the MVIL annual plan at the management level and obtain final approval at the Board level with the current Chairman ofMVIL Dr. Ken Ngangan and the Management. The Minister has to remove the head of the Managem

by KIN OPOSEPA Manumanu Land Deal: Aftermath The Manumanu Land deal issue has subsided through time and all stakeholders affected have seemed to move on, the dust has settled. Let me refresh your memories on the issues again. The purported Manumanu Land Deal (MLD) for the relocation of the PNG Defense Force is alleged to involve five different transactions totalling an amount of K46 million. However, the dealings did not comply with established processes. The MLD issue was raised in Parliament by Member for Kairuku –Hiri, Peter Isoaimo that eventually led to the sidelining of 2 Senior Ministers and suspension of 6 Departmental heads, CEO of State Owned Enterprise and chairman of CSTB. In a media statement on the 6th of February 2017 PM, O’Neil had announced a Commission of Inquiry (COI) headed by a retired Judge to investigate the claims made, referred the matter to the National Fraud Squad and the Ombudsman Commission also for potential breaches of the Leadership Code. He further

by SIR MEKERE MORAUTA   Papua New Guinea needs to take urgent action to save itself from a looming economic and financial storm, former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said today. Sir Mekere, an economist and former head of Treasury, the Bank of Papua New Guinea and other institutions, said the nation cannot continue on its present course. “The Prime Minister has had plenty of warning from his own expert advisers in Treasury and from eminent foreign institutions and observers,” Sir Mekere said. “Good senior people in Treasury have been side-lined or sacked, or shipped out if a foreigner. Anyone who raises concerns suffers personal attack from the Prime Minister. “Or, as with the peaceful protestors who gathered at Unagi Oval on 26 October, being set upon and bashed up by the Police, no doubt on orders from above. “He has ignored all advice, and now the nation is suffering the consequences.” The latest warnings come from the international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S

by JACK KUMAN Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is telling us that the economy and government finances are in good condition. But the official numbers from Treasury and the Bank of Papua New Guinea tell a different story. They tell us that Papua New Guinea is rushing towards an economic and financial disaster. The numbers do not lie, unlike the Prime Minister. Since he grabbed power in mid-2011, the economy and government finances have got worse and worse until today the Government is virtually bankrupt. Now the Prime Minister and his partners in crime have resorted to stealing from State-Owned Enterprises to try to prevent a complete financial crash. They have demanded hundreds of millions of kina, including from LNG landowners’ funds held in NPCP and reserve and operating cash from National Fisheries Authority and MVIL. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of kina already drained from SOEs last year and earlier this year in fake “dividends”. O’Neill’s corru