PNGBLOGS

by MELL LAKA The Attorney General is empowered to brief private lawyers/counsel to act for the State. This occurs when there is need for particular expertise or the Attorney General is unable to undertake the work itself. From Finance Department records a Commission of enquiry found that over the period 2000 to 2006 the State incurred liability in payouts of approximately K100 million in legal fees. The Inquiry saw that there has been no compliance with the Public Finances (Management) Act procedures of expenditure for approval prior to engaging in those brief outs. A  Commission of enquiry after making extensive examination of these payments with ready assistance from all the law firms concerned except Paul Paraka Lawyers which has been the recipient of at least the K41 million in brief out fees for January 2003 to August 2006 noted in NEC records.  Let me illustrate what I mean by excessive legal fee with our so called Chief Secretary of the National Government, Mr. Isaac Lupari

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 MELL LAKA I would like to shed some light with you on the proposed Bills that are being pushed by the government to be passed in parliament, namely the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) 2014. First of all it must be understood that any alteration to the Constitution must be passed by an absolute majority vote in parliament as per section 14 of the Constitution which means that the government needs the opposition's number. The introduction of the Bill (ICAC) was introduced 2014 where we saw a number of politicians and high profile individuals being investigated and prosecuted by several bodies that were not subjected to the directions of the NEC or for that matter. The purpose of the bill before parliament is to alter the Constitution by inserting a new Division under Part VIII of the constitution and that is Division 3. The purpose of Division 3 is to give effect or establish a Commission called the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The main fun

  by PAUL FLANAGAN Alotau II (see here ) fails as a vision for PNG’s future. It insults women, the rural poor, and business credibility. It insults the majority of PNG’s population by placing women’s economic empowerment as only the 89th item of its list of 90 priorities – and it does so under the heading of “PNG Immigration and Customs Services”. It makes no mention at all of women’s social empowerment – so taking action to address issues such as domestic violence and killing “witches”.  And there is also no mention of women’s political empowerment. PNG’s 111 member all male parliament will have to do better. It insults the majority of PNG’s population by having no path forward for agriculture, the source of livelihood for over 80 per cent of its population. Mentioning e-agriculture (priority 80), and only talking about reviving plantations (priority 15) is no way to deal with the malnutrition and stunting still facing too many in PNG. Much can be done to improve the produ

by  SIR MEKERE MORAUTA MP Prime Minister Peter O’Neill should just hand himself in to police instead of abusing the legal system any more, former Prime Minister and Member for Moresby North-West Sir Mekere Morauta said today. “Enough is enough. Judge Collin Makail’s words are crystal clear: the arrest warrant is not reviewable,” Sir Mekere said. “The request to overturn it by the Police Commissioner is ‘an abuse of process’, according to the judge. “It is time to do the right thing and the reponsible thing for the nation and for the Office of the Prime Minister. Go to the police and allow due legal process to take place. Justice will always prevail in the end.” Sir Mekere said Papua New Guineans are sick and tired of Mr O’Neill’s legal trickery and his abuse of public office and the public purse. He said it appeared that taxpayers are footing the Prime Minister’s personal legal bills, at a time when the nation is destitute. “We see from official Treasury documents that Tw

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

$12 million Chinese-built Sigiri bridge in Western Kenya collapsed before it was completed. President Uhuru Kenyatta inspected the project two weeks before the collapse. by MANISH SHARMA Editor’s note: All Pacific nations need to read this story and heed the warning before it is too late. One of you could be next. SRI Lanka has been crippled under a severe debt problem. In the last decade, it has invested billions of dollars in building huge infrastructure and most of the projects haven’t yet produced any adequate returns. Sri Lankan Government is now struggling to make payments and hence facing a severe debt crunch. Sri Lanka’s total debt stands at $64bn. About a whopping 95 per cent of all government revenues go towards debt repayment. The debt to China is eight billion dollars. Many local citizens feel the country is being sold to the Chinese. The problem is that money borrowed has been seemingly squandered on infrastructure that shows no sign of turning a pro

by MAX SORO  Prime Minister Peter O'Neil got his K220 million cut from Hebou Construction owner Constantino for awarding him the K600 million Reuben Taureka highway (formerly Magi highway) in the Central province. That money was being used at Alotau Camp to buy off candidates to join PNC. This K600 million was a loan drawn out from BSP to upgrade this portion of the road. As Constantino being the owner of Hebou Construction and chairman of BSP bank, he approved this loan. The Hebou Contractor sealed off less than 500 meters of the road for this massive K600 million loan money extracted from BSP. Someone with common sense would question whether the upgrade of such road with such kilometres cost more than half a billion kina of tax payers’ money? From this K600 million contracts allocated to Constantino, he gave back K220 million to Peter O’Neill. To cover up investigation as to how this K220 million came into Peter O’Neill’s bank account, he presented a signed document to

O’Neill’s close relationship with the Cragnolinis can be formally traced back at least as far as 2008, when O’Neill was Public Service Minister. [1] In that year, Peter O’Neill became a minority shareholder and director in the company PNG China Business Consultants Limited, alongside Sing Yun Ling from Hong Kong and Ni Yumei Cragnolini. The company specializes in wholesale trade and consulting. During May 2009, Peter O’Neill strengthened his relationship with the Cragnolinis through their joint acquisition of Dove Funeral Services, which O’Neill, Lady Ni Yumei and Sir Luciano still share ownership of. The following year, in 2010, Peter O’Neill (through his company Remington Technology) bought a 34% stake in the Cragnolinis company, Melanesian Travel Consultants Limited. O’Neill’s shares were purchased from Ni Yumei Cragnolini who retained a 33% interest. A Chinese national, Yuewei Ni held the the other 33%. O’Neill later transferred his shares from Remington Technology t