PNGBLOGS

by KUNI BIMUNDI I posed a query “who is funding PM O’Neill’s legal fees?”. Gregory Shepherd, believed to be the lead counsel in all the PM’s court cases, responded and said the State is paying for PM’s legal fees. He further asserted that the Attorney General briefed out cases and payment originates from State Solicitor. Gregory however did not stop at his response. He took a swipe at Mr Sam Koim in the guise of responding to my question. I was at a loss trying to connect how Greg was diverting his attention to Mr Koim. Mr Koim responded to Greg’s comments. The ensuing conversations/comments were hilarious and entertaining. Here is my take on the responses and various comments. Gregory Shepherd raised issues that he is already challenging in court hence Koim described him as engaging in “street fights”. Recent media reports of the cases attest to that. Whilst we citizens are bullied by lawyers for discussing court matters, lawyers like Greg himself took Koim to task in a pub

PNGNEWS It's not the first time, Fred Konga is in the spotlight on social media. Many serious allegations were made against Fred Konga in September last year here on PNG NEWS and a major investigation called for. Firstly it was alleged that the Border Development Authority (BDA) Executive Chairman Mr Fred Konga diverted a contract to a company that was not recommended by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide brown and white goods to refurbish the newly built houses at Wutung station. Other allegations made at the time are as follows: "The 32 houses built at Wutung are funded under the K90 million loan obtained from the Asian Development Bank. These houses were allocated to all the Border Agencies. The BDA Tendering committee followed stringent procurement ADB guidelines to award the Contract to Suppliers who met ADB’s requirements." "Out of the evaluation process two prominent companies (Brian Bell, Courts and Theodist were shortlisted). These companies of

by PAUL FLANAGAN   The PNG Government released its Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook ( MYEFO ) on Monday – the update on the 2015 budget. The estimated budget deficit for 2015 blows out from an already high budgeted 4.4% of GDP to 9.4%. This would be the highest in PNG’s history. Public debt levels are expected to skyrocket from the earlier estimate of 27.8% of GDP to 41.3%. In Australia, such a rapid change in the estimated fiscal position would go well beyond being termed “a budget crisis”. PNG’s official figures are much worse than at the time of PNG’s last economic crisis at the end of the 1990s (see graph below). PNG expenditure and revenues as a share of GDP – with updated figures from 2015 MYEFO Note: The gap between the lines indicates the size of the government deficit or surplus. Both lines exclude grants (aid). The drivers for the rapid deterioration in PNG’s fiscal situation are the fall in international commodity prices, a growth slow down as well

by YAKAN LEPAKALI This article stems from Sunday Chronicle (July 26 2015) titled “Budget Cut and East Sepik to lose K276 million in 2016”. According to the above article, public machinery in ESP is into crisis management mood to make adjustments and take drastic steps with stringent measures to cut back on unnecessary expenditure and tighten up in readiness for 2016 budget cut. The article merely featured East Sepik Province; however, same is true with the other provinces in the country. Yet, intriguingly, nothing much is heard from the respective provincial administrations and perhaps waiting for the dream rainfall. Should K276 million cut in reality is somewhat true for all provinces, it is to the tune of K6 billion plus. We don’t know yet how many national departments and state institutions will have their share of the cut in 2016 budget. It was also speculated that DSIP will also suffer cut courtesy of this ruthless totalitarian regime. The predictability o

by ALEX DON RENALI Since the current management was appointed, UPNG has completely fallen off the academic radar and ladder. UPNG since has been suffering from nepotism, unethical behaviour, vindictive management practices and lack of academic thrust and direction. 1. Decision Making Process Any management guru will tell you that the quality of the decisions in an enterprise, organisation or an institution reflects on the value such decision adds to the organisation. When the decision making process is poor, then the value such a decision adds to the organisation is poor. After two years, it is now very evident that the decision to appoint Mellam as the VC was a poor decision. The University of PNG is suffering under his VC-ship in all fronts, reflecting a poor decision and reflecting the quality of the decision makers. 2. Management of the University Under the current managers of the University, the management practices now being experienced have been non-conforming and out of

by JOHN M TOHERA Growing unhappiness in Madang against the proposed Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) is beginning to make the scam promoters nervous. The PMIZ is nothing more than a sophisticated land grab to transfer the rights of a valuable piece of real estate into Chinese hands. If the PMIZ project goes through, a beautiful pristine piece of Madang Province near Alexishafen will be converted into a stinky collection of tuna canneries just like what you see today in the Philippines and Thailand. These are the kinds of projects that end up mostly exploiting local people instead of bringing 'development' to them. THE KINGPIN CONMAN IN THE LAND GRAB The main character in the PMIZ scam is Gabriel Kapris, former Somare government minister who long ago established his reputation as a whirlwind of corrupt activity. With respect to the PMIZ, Kapris was instrumental in pushing through a K202 million Chinese Exxim Bank Loan to the PNG government while

FRUSTRATED CITIZEN Papua New Guinea as we know is now totally corrupt, the Judiciary the last beacon of hope for PNG is not as impartial as it used to be. In recent months we very experiences Judges sitting in the National and Supreme Court have been made to quit without having their tenures extended only to be replaced by senior lawyers who have been part of this government’s grab of power and statutory corruption at the beginning. The recent appointments of Justice Kassman and Justice Murray is a slap in the face to the Judiciary, it paints a picture of how cheap the judiciary has become by allowing two lawyers involved with the government given preference to become judges. The Chief Justice handling of the Somare Tribunal is also a signal that the mechanisms held in place in the Judiciary is crumbling and so it seems when you hear of other Judges coming out in the national media lamenting decisions made is a signal that we have a country on the verge of falling like those with a dic

FRUSTRATED CITIZEN Papua New Guinea as we know is now totally corrupt, the Judiciary the last beacon of hope for PNG is not as impartial as it used to be. In recent months we very experiences Judges sitting in the National and Supreme Court have been made to quit without having their tenures extended only to be replaced by senior lawyers who have been part of this government’s grab of power and statutory corruption at the beginning. The recent appointments of Justice Kassman and Justice Murray is a slap in the face to the Judiciary, it paints a picture of how cheap the judiciary has become by allowing two lawyers involved with the government given preference to become judges. The Chief Justice handling of the Somare Tribunal is also a signal that the mechanisms held in place in the Judiciary is crumbling and so it seems when you hear of other Judges coming out in the national media lamenting decisions made is a signal that we have a country on the verge of falling like those with a

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner operations Fred Yakasa again gave us a stark reminder of corruption in Papua New Guinea when he said on Tuesday that a mammoth 50% of its budget annually is lost to fraud. This works out to a whopping K4 billion a year, which Yakasa bluntly said had gone into the hands of corrupt public servants and senior bureaucrats, many of whom he alleges have invested these gains overseas. On top of that, PNG fails to collect more than half of the taxation revenue that is due to it. Internal Revenue Commission has admitted that hundreds of millions have been lost through tax evasion, false declarations and companies hiding their books from authorities. Hundreds of millions are lost annually through non-compliance by companies in submitting their tax returns while IRC, because of capacity constraints, limits its checks to major corporate entities operating in the country. Yakasa’s words should be taken note of by every citizen of PNG if we want to see our country d

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner operations Fred Yakasa again gave us a stark reminder of corruption in Papua New Guinea when he said on Tuesday that a mammoth 50% of its budget annually is lost to fraud. This works out to a whopping K4 billion a year, which Yakasa bluntly said had gone into the hands of corrupt public servants and senior bureaucrats, many of whom he alleges have invested these gains overseas. On top of that, PNG fails to collect more than half of the taxation revenue that is due to it. Internal Revenue Commission has admitted that hundreds of millions have been lost through tax evasion, false declarations and companies hiding their books from authorities. Hundreds of millions are lost annually through non-compliance by companies in submitting their tax returns while IRC, because of capacity constraints, limits its checks to major corporate entities operating in the country. Yakasa’s words should be taken note of by every citizen of PNG if we want to see our country