PNGBLOGS

by CYRIL GARE  Port Moresby,  Only 250,000 public servants (plus or minus) out of 8 million Papua New Guineans eat up 30 percent of our national-common wealth or K5.2 billion of the national budget every year through their pay packets. That’s a huge burden on the shoulder of a struggling developing nation where all socioeconomic indicators on the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) scale speak low of PNG, even lower among the regional neighbors - Pacific Island Nations (PIN). This excludes the costs of public servants’ traveling allowances, office rentals, utilities, vehicle hire, and such other costs that leech on public funding. As if that’s not enough, departments and state agencies have developed a systemic tendency to ask for more and loot from the people’s share each time the pie is available. A case in point: - The Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) is handling of 2022 K15 million price support/freight subsidy program funds. Originally, K20 million was allo

by   DAVID LEPI Rishi Sunak wins the Conservative Party leadership race and becomes United Kingdom's new prime minister. Sunak, a Briton of Indian ancestry and practicing Hundu rise to power in one of the world's most iconic democracies as been a telling journey on the back of certain peculiar political events that saw 3 leadership change in just 2 months.  Whilst India celebrates Diwali - Hindu festival of lights -  and Sunak's ascension to power in the Commonwealth's former empire there are two important lessons that Papua New Guinea must learn and learn earnestly.  1. Mass resignation of government members following Prime Minister Boris Johnson's unethical conduct.  2. Prime Minister Liz Truss voluntarily resigned because she couldn't deliver on her election promises.  Having said that let's have a quick look to the background to each of the above events.  In July 2022 when Papua New Guinea was in the middle of a stormy national election UK's Prime Mi

INTELLIGENCE REPORT: DETECTION OF FOUL PLAY IN THE POM NW BY-ELECTION AT MURRAY BARRACKS COUNTING VENUE FACTS 1. On Friday 04 June 21 all ballot boxes for Ward 7 were stored at Murray Barracks Ben Moide Club before counting began on Tuesday 08 June 21. At approximate timings of 2000 - 2100 hours an unmarked vehicle 10 seater white in color drove into BMC. The driver of the vehicle approached one of the Military Police Guards and asked for the key of the container the boxes were stored in. There were 3x MPs guarding the ballot boxes locked inside the container at that particular time.  The MP’s responded that they don’t have the key. One of the MPs reported that after asking for the key he jumped back onto his vehicle and drove off. It was plain darkness as all lights were off due to the blackout from PNG Power and the guards could not recognize the person fully as well as the vehicle registration. 2. On Saturday 05 June at between 0200 hours – 0500 hours an unmarked vehicl

by TED TEMO James Marape is the biggest liar, betrayer and hypocrite of all time. He is the definition of a wolf in sheep's skin. He was PNC, part of PNC and served as the longest serving Finance Minister for seven (7) consecutive years in the PNC Party government. He resigned from PNC Party and lied to this country and her people that he didn’t want to be part of a corrupt O’Neill government. However, to date he has not produced one single evidence and or laid one single complaint with Ombudsman Commission or Police National Fraud and Anti Corruption Directorate on his claims.   He was never genuine from the start. He said he only wanted to remove O’Neill and never wanted to be PM. However, in Laguna camp, he forced himself by putting his name down on VONC Motion Paper has the candidate for PM hoping that he will attract the numbers. Needless to say, he never attracted numbers and so fall short of the required majority (magic number) which is 56 MPs.  In failing his bid, he then w

by JAMIE MAIGAU In every comments or statement a supporter or admirer of PM Hon. James Marape when he/ she argue in defence of PMJM he/ she would say PMJM is cleaning the mess created by Hon. Peter O'Neil. I find it hard to comprehend and always beg question 'is the person commenting knows what he/she is saying?'  Peter O'Neil employed the same people that are now being employed by PMJM. They all created the mess together and now PMJM tries to clean it. While in the process of cleaning it PMJM is careful not to hurt his own foot. That something we all citizens should know and understand. For us to praise PMJM and denounce PO is not a right thing to do. To avoid shooting his own foot PMJM would change and shift his strategies to deviate our attention from the real corruption issues that he vowed to fight when he took over from PMPO. Fighting of Coronavirus, approval of Superannuation funds, Sapotim Wantok Foundation and his other actions and deeds are mechani

by GABRIEL RAMOI Twelve months ago who among us would have predicted  the rise of a much under rated James Marape as the 8th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea putting an end to eight years of tumultuous rule by Peter O’Neill and his PNC Party.  In this article we profile the achievement of James Marape over the last 12 months and lay out the challenges both for Marape as Prime Minister and for the country he now leads and contrast that with the Style and achievements of Peter O’Neill, the man he replaced as Prime Minister. James Marape continues to intrigue and surprise us with the array of tools he is deploying from a Pandora box of politics. Intrigue because from a base without money or support of big businesses or a regional based political party he was able to effect a regime change in PNG, a feat that will be hard to repeat for a long while. Surprised because the man he replaced is no political midget and to successful pull the rug from under   O’Neill’s   feet is a master

by JAMES MARAPE MP, PRIME MINISTER To all PNG miners (those in both operations and explorations) we will not change goal posts in between. PNG is a robust democracy that honors all agreements to the text and spirit, congruent to our mining act. Major amendments to the resource law regimes we doing will be effected post 2025 and will not affect those agreements secured under present regimes. You can have that comfort. However Pogera is a special case and is an exception because Barrick’s lease expired on 18th August 2019. My letter to Barrick is on it’s way and will explain this and also allude to formal and legitimate processes of government including MAC’s deliberation that refused application for lease renewal. I have my country’s 8million shareholders including the people of Ipili, Pogera , Enga, environmental footprint areas plus present mine workers to look after. Now that your lease has expired, the legal process is there for Barrick to comply so you can maintain your oper

by DOH Whistleblower SCRUTINISE HEALTH MINISTER AND SENIOR OFFICERS AT DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ON COVID - 19 FUNDING Can the Rt Honourable Prime Minister scrutinise and examine the minister responsible for Health & HIV AIDS and other senior officers on the accessibility and spending of COVID 19 Funding. From the reliable sources have informed me that the minister is interfering with the administrative functions of the department in the procurement process. Other senior officials are also colluding with the minister to have some personal interest in their management of the funding earmarked for the pandemic. The following issues need to be looked at; 1. There are two (2) resigned officers (names withheld) have been recalled and engaged by the dept to assist the acting secretary during this time of crisis. Well its reasonable and a good call in fact that their memories and experiences are required at this stage. However, it doesn’t not go well with other senior officers wh

by JOHN KAMA The new Marape-Davis government has created a centre-piece in the cabinet that the entire country is drawn in with so much interest in the appointment of Kerenga Kua and Bryan Kramer among the 33 cabinet ministers.The following are the uniqueness about their appointment, hence, became the centre-piece of attraction: 1. They were members of the opposition who never voted for PMJM. 2. Their appointment to ministry as opposition members was unconventional in the WestMinster System. 3. They were the two top critics of the last government whom PMJM & majority of his current cabinet members were part of. 4. They both stood for zero tolerance on corruption at all levels by both citizens and non-citizens. 5. They were both outspoken on white collar corruption and the arrest of former PM Hon. Peter O'Neill and his cronies. 6. They both understood every letter of the law and were willing to use the courts as their strongest weapon against anyone. Why PMJM appointed

by MELL LAKKA Mr. Prime Minister, Papua New Guinea does not need to amend the constitution to cater for an individual's  greed. We need intelligent people to debate on controversial issues affecting our lives. I hope your newly appointed CIS Minister looks into the deplorable Prison conditions in Papua New Guinea. Having said that it begs the question, What happened to the mass killing of the prisoners last year and the year before that, its been almost two years and it seems like the government had slaughter pigs and no one even cares about it. Look at the  Correctional Institution Service of Papua New Guinea, it has been facing problems of organization, administration, training, lack of community support and finance.  So far, it has asked for and received advice and financial help from the Australian government to surmount these difficulties. The invited organizations and specialists have presented several reports with many recommendations to improve the situation. But up unti

by Taunamo Badira, The people of Ialibu Pangia Electorate will deliberately choose to be deaf dumb and blind. They will deliberately choose to be the stupidest people in PNG, and in fact in the whole world. It is a level of fanatical stupidity no none has ever seen if they vote for Peter O'Neill. Why is that so? They will be going to the polls either today or next week to elect Peter ONeill once again to be their Leader and MP. To them electing a leader is not about truth, honesty, uprightness, integrity, visionary, strength of character, compassion, etc. To them it is a matter of blind fanatical pride. Pride that one of their own has made it to the top office against every other leader in the country. To have him as Prime Minister, even though he broke the Constitution to steal that office from Somare, was a dream come true for them, albeit unexpectedly. They are prepared to honour a thief of public office. They are prepared to honour a thief who amassed so much wealth using h