PNGBLOGS

  by MICHAEL PASSINGAN Its not Rocket Science, Papua New Guineans should know that the country is crumbling. Bank of PNG Governor Loi Bakani’s explanation of the theft of K124 million in demonetised banknotes, and their illegal distribution across the country and on EBay, is pathetic. The theft is clearly an inside job and Bakani’s statement is an attempt to cover that fact up. It could only have been carried out with detailed knowledge of the bank’s practices for the destruction of notes that have been taken out of circulation. Even more alarming is that the scandal – yes, another one in the O’Neill Regime, one of the most corrupt governments in the world – comes at election time. It won’t be long before the money starts appearing in the Highlands as election bribes by PNC candidates and coalition cronies Some stories circulating in Highlands centres indicate that that is already happening. It’s an easy thing to do, as PNC’s crooked strategists surely know. Villagers in remot

by BRYAN KRAMER Prime Minister Peter O'Neill continues to issue misleading statements about the real state of the economy including the Government's true debt levels. On 3rd March 2016 O'Neill delivered a speech before Australian National Press Club in Canberra where he highlighted serious decline in world prices for our oil and gas and our minerals over the last 12 to 18 months has had a serious impact on our economy. "I do not want to sugar coat the pressures that we are facing with our people. We have an open dialogue on what we are doing to confront these challenges" he said. He went on to explain just a couple of years ago - "royalties and taxes from the resource sector totalled close to two billion Kina. Last year it amounted to just 260 million Kina - barely one eighth of the previous year’s revenues, and we expect the same in 2016" he said. He said as a result his Government was forced to revise his budget estimates downwards and liv

by JAMES PARAKISAN Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll are forcing up the price of food so that more and more people cannot afford basic items such as flour and rice and other imported items. Even prices of local foods are increasingly expensive. The proof - Bank of Papua New Guinea says food prices rose almost 25% in the 12 months to December 31 last year. This is more pain and suffering for the people because of the longlong policies, waste corruption and mismanagement of O’Neill and his Government colleagues like Tomscoll. Tomscoll as Minister for Agriculture is mainly to blame because of his ban on vegetable imports in the middle of last year. But blame also is with O’Neill, whose reckless, wasteful and corrupt borrowings have caused the kina’s value to crash, making all imported food more expensive. In its Monthly Economic Bulletin for January 2016, the central bank reports that fruit and vegetable prices rose by 24

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 NRI INSIDER There was always something a little strange about the collapsing kin. First we were told by Peter O'Neill and his corrupt cronies Marape and Pruaitch that the kina wasn't going down or that the slide was only temporary. But as we saw days of kina sliding turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, that lie no longer worked. Today we have a clear graphical record of a slide in the kina that began nearly from the moment that Peter O'Neill was re-elected and took office again and has continued up to now. The Masters of Deception now admit this is the case but say that they've got everything under control. Most certainly not. If you look at the rate at which the kina has been declining against the US dollar in recent weeks you can see that the slide started becoming steeper than it was before. The Masters of Deception can lie all they want but the bare facts don't lie. An outright collapse of the kina to God knows what low levels is being pre

  by SAM BASIL MP Low Oil Prices/Stockmarkets Share Prices Plummeting Further Exposing UBS Loan and impact on PNG’s economy As Deputy Opposition Leader (DOL), I have issued several statements about the mismanagement of Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) economy since 2012 by the O’Neill-led government. I have revisited the reality of them in recent days following developments in Bulolo and the Morobe Province in delivery of services to the rural areas. As any elected member of Parliament regardless of party membership, it is our duty to make statements on our directions of PNG and what our future looks like under this PNC-led government. With Parliament member’s silence, they have deliberately exposed PNG to high debt spending with figures now stating that our economy is on the decline and rather than reduce DSIP’s/PSIP’s, they are now thinking of increasing GST, impacting heavily on our citizens; I will not be supporting the Bill, to increase GST/VAT! One specific decision that O’Neill dire