PNGBLOGS

by PNGBLOGS Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s greed and corruption is on show again in the 2017 Budget, with K40 million allocated for his personal use. The slush fund is a new allocation, under the Treasury and Finance Miscellaneous category, entitled Prime Minister’s Commitments. Also in this category is K3 million for “PM’s Official Staff Determination Payouts”. Treasury and Finance Miscellaneous can be viewed on Page 187 of Volume 2a, 2017 Budget Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for National Government Departments http://www.treasury.gov.pg/html/national_budget/files/2017/Vol2a-Revenue%20and%20Expenditure%20National%20Govt%20Depts.pdf No details of the new slush fund have been given. No reference was made to it in the Treasurer’s speech. No details are available of who or what the K40 million is to be spent on. There is no evidence of any acquittal requirements. This is a slush fund pure and simple and the Prime Minister and his Treasurer are trying to keep it secret

by JASON P KANGOMA Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch is scheduled to hand down the 2017 Budget in Parliament this week. Given that 2017 is election year, the Budget is certain to be dominated by the usual O’Neill Regime spin and deceit, along with wasteful and irresponsible spending measures. But the central feature will be drastic cuts to essential social services such as health and education, and further suffering for ordinary Papua New Guineans. Every successive O’Neill Budget has been a failure, creating more problems than they solve, and driving the nation further towards total collapse. This special PNG Blogs report reveals the ongoing damage Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s corruption, greed and mismanagement is doing to Papua New Guinea.   POVERTY INCREASING UNDER O’NEILL REGIME The new announcement by the O’Neill Regime that it has obtained a K1 billion rescue package from the Asian Development Bank proves that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s economic and finan

by SAMSON LENKI WALO The recently published photo of "The Duck" at Jackson's airport, in all his glorious obesity, doing some kind of deal on his mobile phone, may go down in history as a classic, symbolic picture of what Peter O'Neill's government has come to be known for: corruption sleeze and greed. It's not just The Duck's image of uncontrollable gluttony. Examine his history and you will discover that even the harshest interpretations of what that big fat belly represents behind the scenes are no exaggeration. The story of Rimbink Pato is a story that covers more than 20 years. It intertwines in an intriguing way with other notables, including Paul Paraka and former MP Peter Yama of Madang. INTRIGUING INTERRELATED TECHNIQUES OF PATO, YAMA AND PARAKA Let's start with the basics. Rimbink Pato is a lawyer. Not a particularly good lawyer, but one who was determined to get rich. The way Pato got rich, and the wa

PNGBLOGS Papua New Guinea is in economic recession, according to leading Australian academic economist Paul Flanagan, who is an expert on PNG. This is revealed in his analysis (at his www.pngeconomics.org blog) of the latest official numbers from the Bank of Papua New Guinea and the National Statistics Office. The official numbers show Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch and Finance Minister James Marape are telling lies when they say the economic is healthy and everything is under control. Mr Flanagan says the recession began in early 2014, and the official numbers show that it is  continuing. This means Papua New Guineans’ standard of living has been falling since 2014. In other words, O’Neill has wasted the riches flowing from PNG LNG and the three years of high GDP growth he experienced when he became Prime Minister. Papua New Guineans are poorer today than they were at the start of 2014 because of O’Neill’s waste, corruption and mismanagement.   Fla