PNGBLOGS

by  M.V LASIA PNG has recently made the headlines across the globe for being in a financial debt crisis and struggling to pay its debts and expenses. It is no secret the O'Neill Government has had cash-flow crisis and only managing to keep its head above water. What little tax income it earns each month is being used to ensure public servants are paid every fortnight and any difference is directed to propping up its free education policy and partly pay for its inflated contracts. Meanwhile Peter O'Neill claims the country's financial crisis has been caused by dramatic fall in world commodity prices placing a strain on economies around the world. So is Peter O'Neill telling the truth? Short answer is No.  The PNG Government funds its operations, development projects and services its debt obligations through the collection of taxes and overseas grants (donor funding). Tax collection or revenue is categorized into three main parts. 1) Tax on Income and Profit

[PRESS RELEASE] Former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said today the skeletons in the closet that the Prime Minister has been trying to hide have now been laid bare for all to see. “Mr O’Neill can no longer pretend that everything is OK,” Sir Mekere said. “He must drop the spin and the deception and let the people of Papua New Guinea know the full scale of the economic and financial disaster that he has caused.” Sir Mekere said Friday night’s speech by the Treasurer, Patrick Pruaitch, and the release at the same time of the 2016 Final Budget Outcome, demonstrate conclusively that the Prime Minister has been misleading the nation. “Everything that I have been saying for the past five years, along with Opposition Leader Don Polye, his deputy Sam Basil, and respected economists and other commentators, cannot now be denied,” he said. “The nation is in crisis, and the only solution is to get rid of the Prime Minister and his advisers who are responsible. The longer it takes for

Race to recovery: poorer and younger people will be the losers from a sustained budget crisis. by PAUL FLANAGAN The past year has been a year of poor public policy and misfortune for Papua New Guinea. The country ended the year in crisis management with cash shortages and budget cuts more severe than those in Greece's austerity package. Businesses are suffering from a lack of foreign exchange to pay for imports and sales are falling. Newspaper stories are increasingly of government cash shortages – funding not being paid to meet urgent medical programs such as drug resistant TB, teacher entitlements being deferred, superannuation contributions not being deposited, little being done to deal with the most severe drought since 1997. The international ratings agencies of Moody's and Standard and Poor'

by SAM BASIL MP  Deputy Opposition Leader As Deputy Opposition Leader (DOL), I have continuously criticised the mismanagement of the economy by the O’Neill government and their continuous lies that the economy will recover back to pre-2012, when PNG was in a surplus budget. My predictions on the negative high spending and reliance on oil and gas prices, from as far back as 36 months ago when the 2013 Budget was handed down, is now very real; the citizens of Papua New Guinea (PNG) don’t have to look far on the basic figureswhen they’re experiencing: i) The high costs of goods and services acknowledging the high inflation rate that I predicted which current figures don’t acknowledge, and ii) The rapid devaluation of our exchange rate reflecting a slowdown in the economy because- a. The exporters aren’t getting the revenue they used to get, as well as b. The importers awaiting their products to reach our shores because there is a lack of foreign reserves available, to pay o

by PAUL FLANAGAN Potential crisis – what does this mean? • 3 types of crisis observed in countries through time (talk will focus on first, and some comments on second) • Fiscal crisis (PNG – first and second 1990s crises) • Government runs out of money to pay its bills. • Potentially manifested by shortage of government cash, ‘out of the ordinary’ borrowings, printing money, much higher government security interest rates. • External crisis (PNG – first and second 1990s crises) • Running out of foreign currency to pay bills (either private or more particularly government) • Potentially manifested by various forms of exchange rate controls, tariffs and quotas, foreign currency borrowings. • Muddling down crisis (more African and South American examples) • Pattern of continuing poor decision making undermining sustainable growth. • Medium to long-term timeframe – a slow bubbling crisis that may extend over a decade. • Potentially manifested by pattern of poor eco

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