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Part 2 – Sweetheart deals cost taxpayers and landowners

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THE TRUE STORY OF THE UBS LOAN AND OTHER DEALS BETWEEN THE O’NEILL GOVERNMENT AND OIL SEARCH Part 2 – Sweetheart  deals cost taxpayers and landowners BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT IN SINGAPORE Comments by Oil Search executives and directors at the company’s annual general meeting earlier this year raise serious concerns about its knowledge of many specific instances of corruption in Papua New Guinea relating to its business, and its corporate behaviour. These instances are separate to the illegal UBS Loan which Oil Search helped to arrange, as detailed in Part 1 How Peter O’Neill and Peter Botten cost Papua New Guinea at least K1 billion. Some of these issues were the subject of questions in in the Australian Senate, but no satisfactory answers were provided by the Australian officials responsible. For example landowners in the PNG LNG project are owed hundreds of millions of kina in royalty payments and other entitlements, much of which is paid to the Government by Oil Se

EXCLUSIVE: THE TRUE STORY OF THE UBS LOAN: How Peter O’Neill and Peter Botten cost Papua New Guinea at least K1 billion

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BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT IN SINGAPORE Part 1 – How Peter O’Neill and Peter Botten cost Papua New Guinea at least K1 billion The Oil Search Annual General Meeting in Port Moresby earlier this year confirmed that the company is acutely aware of the extent of corruption in the Papua New Guinea government of Peter O’Neill. Oil Search executives privately commented to attendees after the AGM closed that "... everything here in PNG is corrupt …" “… the government is so corrupt …”, "… PNG has a lot of corruption issues …" and others in similar vein. The cost of O’Neill Government corruption is high, estimated to be several billion kina a year. Now the contribution of Oil Search’s own questionable dealings with the O’Neill Government has come under public scrutiny. Late last month stockmarket trading announcements revealed that the nation has lost at least K1 billion in an illegal sweetheart deal organised in secret between Prime Minister O’Neill and O

2017 BUDGET BLOW-OUT

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PRESS RELEASE by  Rt. Hon SIR MEKERE MORAUTA MP Former Prime Minister and Member for Moresby North-West Sir Mekere Morauta said today that at last some members of the PNC Government have admitted that the Papua New Guinea economy is in difficulty.  Sir Mekere referred to the media statement by Deputy Prime Minister and Caretaker Treasurer Charles Abel, who said that the focus of the government in its first 100 Days would be on “economic recovery”. Sir Mekere noted that this was an interesting admission and use of words by Mr Abel, because the Prime Minister has consistently refused to recognise that the economy is in recession, and has mismanaged public finances in such a way that has allowed the recession to intensify. “My advice to Mr Abel is that before he launches into any “recovery” measures, he needs to repair the budget and reform his Prime Minister and curb his extravagant and uncontrolled spending and borrowing,” Sir Mekere said. “The non-mining sector, on which the

THE GAMATO -LUPARI-PNC- ELECTION FIASCO

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Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato’s responses and comments at his media conference yesterday raise serious questions and concerns about the election and the mismanagement and irregularities that have been revealed, and confirm he is not in control of the operations. Papua New Guinea deserves more than the unsatisfactory and contradictory answers from Mr Gamato and the suspicious silence from Isaac Lupari. “Mr Gamato spent yesterday afternoon smiling away and treating legitimate questions as something to laugh about,” former Prime Minister Sir Mekere said today. “Very important questions were brushed aside as if they didn’t matter.” For example where is the electoral roll? It is extraordinary that it is still not publicly available so voters and candidates can check its accuracy. “What are Mr Gamato and Mr Lupari hiding,” Sir Mekere asked. Mr Gamato’s statement that voting would not be extended in areas where one-day polling was reduced to a handful of hours is totally

Peter O’Neill – the most expensive PNG Prime Minister in history

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. “Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is costing the people of Papua New Guinea a fortune,” former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said today   “ The Government has severe cashflow problems. There are no medicines in hospitals and health centres; schools have not received nearly enough money to operate; businesses are owed millions by the Government, but Treasury and Finance seem to have no problem paying the huge expenses the Prime Minister runs up daily. “On top of the damage he is inflicting on the country and the people through gross mismanagement of public finances, high debt and poor health and education services, he constantly flies around the country and the world in the Falcon jet, hires helicopters, stays in expensive hotels – all on the public purse. “I am told he has a permanent suite at the Airways Hotel, where he has lived for the last five years, eats and drinks there, when he has a perfectly good house on Touaguba Hill, and of course Mirigini House, at his dispo

PETER O'NEILL TOLD TO CHECK FACTS BEFORE MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS

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Former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta today again rebutted the Prime Minister’s claims about PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd and his chairmanship. Sir Mekere referred to an article in the Post Courier of 27 April, which he said was a regurgitation of a media release put out a week ago on the PNC website. “I answered the false allegations he made in a media statement on 23 April; my statement was actually printed by the Post-Courier on 24 April. “Yet he and his media friends persist in repeating false claims.” Sir Mekere said that being an Independent candidate for the election does not make him an “active politician”. “I am like the other 4000-plus private citizens who are not Parliamentarians but are standing in the election,” he said. “Mr O’Neill forgets that PNGSDP is a company, and that I am not a public employee.” Sir Mekere said every claim made by the Prime Minister about PNGSDP and his role as chairman was false. The facts are: I have taken legal