Time for the government of Papua New Guinea to change is now!
Hon Bob Danaya
PNG Labor Party Leader
PNG Labor Party Leader
Hon Peter Ipatas
People’s Party Leader
People’s Party Leader
Hon Koni Iguan (pic not avaliable)
People’s Labor Party Leader
People’s Labor Party Leader
Scandals, corruption, gross financial mismanagement and the dismal failure to provide services have caused people to lose confidence in the Somare Government. The Opposition and a number of parties in Government together declare that we are ready to form a new Government.
We also call on MPs with the true interests of our nation at heart to join us and form a Government of Integrity and Service. We urge the public to call on their elected Members to join us to put our nation back on the road to progress.
The new Government will have three guiding principles:
The new Government will have three guiding principles:
We will govern honestly and fairly.
We will manage wisely and professionally.
We will put the people and the nation first.
The new Government will have the following priorities:
To act immediately against the corruption tidal wave.
To act immediately to restore sound public financial management.
To act immediately to bring decent services to the people.
NOW is the time to build a better and more certain future. Paradise PNG has been turned into a garden of evil by a Government that cares only for itself, not for the people. Money that belongs to the people is being eaten by a handful of greedy politicians, officials and their cronies. Crime and corruption have become a way of life for many of our leaders.
Mr Prime Minister, your own Justice Minister told Parliament that corruption is eating every system of governance in the country. Some Members of Parliament, he said, are “guilty of corruption”. Already eight Somare Government Ministers, including the Prime Minister himself, have been recommended for referral to a Leadership Tribunal.
Government funds end up in the hands of Ministers, officials and cronies - cronies here, in Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, the US, Malaysia - cronies everywhere. Funds disappear from government trust accounts. Mr Prime Minister, you and your regime do not care about the welfare of the people. Despite widespread outcry, the Government and Air Niuigini are planning to lease a new jet for the use of the Prime Minister.
It is the type of jet that Arabian princes and billionaire American businessmen buy.
The Prime Minister says: “The people of PNG will not be poorer by the decision to buy an executive jet worth millions of kina”. Mr Prime Minister, we WILL be poorer.
The Prime Minister says: “The people of PNG will not be poorer by the decision to buy an executive jet worth millions of kina”. Mr Prime Minister, we WILL be poorer.
The money to buy the luxury jet, more than K110 million, should be used so our children can go to school, so our mothers can get medical attention, so our roads can be repaired, so health clinics can be staffed and have medicine, so people can have clean drinking water, so teachers, nurses, soldiers and the police can be paid properly. As if the luxury jet is not enough, we now hear the Prime Minister’s latest crazy idea is to buy a satellite from India for around TWO BILLION Kina and launch it into space.
What planet are you on, Prime Minister? Our systems of good government and our laws are continually being trampled upon. The Government uses Parliament as a rubber stamp and
prevents it from debating issues of corruption and cronyism. What are you afraid of, Prime Minister? Budgets approved by Parliament are abused.
prevents it from debating issues of corruption and cronyism. What are you afraid of, Prime Minister? Budgets approved by Parliament are abused.
The Public Finances (Management) Act, which exists to ensure that the people’s money is spent wisely, honestly and fairly, is treated with contempt. Offenders are not prosecuted. White-collar crocodiles encircle and raid the Finance Department. Snakes wearing gold watches grow fat on the Department of National Planning. Wild pigs dressed in suits roam through the offices of Government-owned enterprises.
The Somare regime has ruled over a period of great wealth from record world commodity prices. In the last 6 years it has spent over 47 billion Kina. But Papua New Guineans are still poor. Why, Mr Prime Minister? How has the money been spent, Mr Prime Minister? Human development has not improved.
Infrastructure continues to deteriorate. Delivery of essential services such as health, education, law and order and asset maintenance is failing. The Somare regime knows how to spend to make itself fat, but it does not know how to spend to benefit all Papua New Guineans. It does not know how to govern honestly, wisely and fairly. It does not care about people. This is a Government that will do anything, at any cost, to
stay in power.
stay in power.
The Somare regime has become famous for the scandals its Ministers and officials have engaged in.
In 2006 the Taiwan Government set aside $US30 million to buy diplomatic recognition from Papua New Guinea. Members of the Somare Government have admitted involvement in the affair. The Prime Minister has refused to answer questions in Parliament about any aspect of the scandal, or about his meetings with the Taiwanese Foreign Minister.
The Opposition is stopped from asking any questions in Parliament about it. Evidence was tendered in Taiwanese courts that six prominent Papua New Guineans received cash. One Taiwanese bag man confirmed he had given hundreds of thousands of kina to PNG representatives. The $US30 million is still missing.
Taiwanese authorities are still trying to find a way to interview certain Papua New Guinean citizens. Mr Prime Minister, you refuse to do anything about this scandal. You refuse to order a police or banking investigation. Why?
The Singapore Logging Cash Scam $US40 million from PNG log exports was found in secret Singapore bank accounts allegedly owned and operated by a Minister. Three other Ministers allegedly shared in this secret cash. This is money that rightfully belongs to the people of Papua New Guinea. Mr Prime Minister, you refuse to answer any questions about this affair, and you refuse to order a police or banking investigation. Why is this so, Mr Prime Minister?
The Ombudsman Commission recommended that the Prime Minister be referred to a Leadership Tribunal for failing to submit Leadership Returns for many years. The Prime Minister is fighting his referral in the courts, instead of standing down and allowing due legal process to continue. No one should be above the law.
Government Ministers have improperly questioned the Ombudsman Commission in public while the PM’s court battle and the Commission’s investigations continue. The Prime Minister himself has improperly used parliamentary privilege as cover to defend the allegations against himself, and to attack the integrity and impartiality of the then Chief Ombudsman.
The Prime Minister was found by a Defence Board of Inquiry to have ordered a secret military operation to allow former Solomon Islands Attorney-General Julian Moti to escape from PNG to avoid deportation to Australia to face criminal charges.
The Inquiry recommended that the Prime Minister be charged with a number of criminal offences, as well as charged under the Organic Law on the Duties and Responsibilities of Leaders. Mr Prime Minister, you have refused to make the report public or to act on the Inquiry’s recommendations. Why? The Somare regime has improperly gagged Parliament from discussing Motigate.
Prime Minister, you and your regime do not care about the welfare of the people. The Prime Minister is fighting the Ombudsman Commission in the courts - why? The Somare regime threatened the media and wrongly referred a newspaper to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee over its reporting of Motigate.
The Prime Minister told Parliament that he was not a shareholder in a private company called Pacific Registry of Ships. Mr Prime Minister, you lied to the Parliament and to the people.
The Post-Courier later revealed documentary evidence that the Prime Minister was a shareholder in the company. The Prime Minister admitted that no such shareholding has been
included in his Leadership Returns.
The Post-Courier later revealed documentary evidence that the Prime Minister was a shareholder in the company. The Prime Minister admitted that no such shareholding has been
included in his Leadership Returns.
The Prime Minister has also failed to answer questions on why he instructed the National Maritime Safety Authority to appoint his company to undertake statutory surveys of all ships when it is not qualified to do so under Papua New Guinea law (for ships over 500 gross tonnes).
The Government allocated an Australian legal firm, Freehills, K20 million in consultancy fees last year for ICT policy “advice”. Who chose Freehills, and why? Why was the consultancy never tendered? Did this foreign firm have proper legal authority to draft legislative amendments? What did PNG get for the K20 million?
IPBC has become an investment house and is acting like a private or family company. It has been given the state’s shares, peoples’ shares, for free, in companies, such as BSP, Telikom, PNG Power, Oil Search and now, in PNG LNG.
These shares and dividends from them are worth billions and billions of Kina. In the last five years IPBC has received more than 200 million Kina in dividends. Where is all this money? How much of it has been spent by IPBC? How much has been paid into consolidated revenue?
Incompetence, negligence, abuse and outright corruption have cost the nation billions of kina - money that should have been used for people’s benefit.
The Somare regime had two goes at getting the 2008 Budget right. It got it wrong both times.
First it said its income would be K7.2 billion and it would spend K6.9 million. When it became clear that these figures were wrong, it said its income would be K7.8 billion and it would spend K7.9 million. These figures were also wrong. The 2008 Final Budget Outcome shows income was K7 billion and spending was K7.5 billion.
First it said its income would be K7.2 billion and it would spend K6.9 million. When it became clear that these figures were wrong, it said its income would be K7.8 billion and it would spend K7.9 million. These figures were also wrong. The 2008 Final Budget Outcome shows income was K7 billion and spending was K7.5 billion.
In the end, the Somare regime’s reckless spending resulted in a Budget deficit of almost K500 million. Mr Prime Minister, you and the Treasurer have demonstrated you do not have a clue about financial management. That huge K500 million deficit must be paid for by higher taxes,
by borrowing more money or by depriving the people of essential services. Whichever way, the people of Papua New Guinea will become poorer.
by borrowing more money or by depriving the people of essential services. Whichever way, the people of Papua New Guinea will become poorer.
The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee is an important watchdog. It has a growing list of theft, abuse, mismanagement and incompetence. The Somare regime is starving the Committee of money and manpower because it does not like its investigations or its findings. The Somare regime is refusing to act on its findings. Mr Prime Minister, by failing to act, you are encouraging corruption.
This Inquiry was reluctantly set up by the Prime Minister when numerous cases of misuse of public money and illegal activities were revealed. The Prime Minister was given a preliminary report in April last year, but he has done nothing to act on its findings. Why, Mr Prime Minister, when hundreds of millions of kina belonging to the people are involved?
Due to the Government’s failure to plan and deliver services, it now relies on Members’ electorate funds for provision of services in districts. Under the new District Services Improvement Program, each electorate gets $10 million. But this money will not solve district development failures. It is like sticking a band-aid on to a raging tropical ulcer.
Expenditure of the money puts pressure on politicians who, instead of being lawmakers and policy setters, are turned into project managers and book-keepers. This year, in addition to the DSIP, a new one-off payment was handed out to silence MPs when they questioned what had happened to the millions of kina in the National Development Agriculture Programme (NDAP).
In February each Open MP was given a cheque for K200,000, allegedly for agriculture projects, but without specific spending or reporting guidelines for this money. This was the last remaining money in the NDAP, though no-one knows which crocodiles had swallowed the rest. The Somare regime could not even correctly count the funds remaining in the account before it started handing cheques out - many of them bounced. Why, Mr Prime Minister?
The Somare regime has around K5 billion stored away in trust accounts. It can spend this money at any time and for any reason, because there is no scrutiny of trust accounts through annual Budget preparation and review processes.
It can (and does) hide its use of public funds from the public and the media and the authorities responsible for making sure it is spent wisely, fairly and honestly. The Ombudsman Commission tells us that more than K37 million in the Rehabilitation of Education and Schools Infrastructure TrustAccounts disappeared in 2008.
This money was to be used to rebuild and maintain schools. The Ombudsman Commission says the money has not been used to rebuild or maintain schools. K200 million was removed from the Health Department’s Health Sector Improvement Trust Accounts. This money was to be used for a large number of projects to upgrade hospitals and clinics.
In the 2009 Budget papers, the Treasury revealed that many more millions of kina in Trust Accounts were not accounted for in 2008. This money was for important projects such as airport repairs, volcano victim resettlement, National Broadcasting Commission improvements, police housing and so on.
In 2007 the Public Accounts Committee estimated that at least K1 billion had walked out the door of trust accounts without leaving any footprints. It must be more by now. Mr Prime Minister, where is all this cash?
Since coming to power the Somare regime has handed down seven Budgets and five supplementary Budgets for a total of K54 billion in spending. But Mr Prime Minister social and infrastructure development indicators show that the Government has wasted much of that money.
A National Economic and Fiscal Commission report in 2007 stated that Papua New Guinea spent on average only 20 per cent of what it needs to spend on health, 24 per cent of what is needed to maintain infrastructure, 37 per cent of what it needed for agriculture and 52 per cent of what it needs to spend on education. At the same time, the nation spent almost double what it needs to spend on administration.
Only 10 per cent of the proposed spending on land transport in the National Development Transport Plan is being achieved. Only 17 per cent of proposed spending on the water and air transport sectors is being achieved. The maintenance backlog for transport infrastructure is estimated to be K700 million a year, and growing.
Three per cent of babies do not live more than 28 days. Almost six per cent die before their first birthday. Another two per cent die before their fifth birthday. Twenty-eight per cent of children under five are underweight for their age. Only 38 per cent of births are attended by skilled health staff. Each year 733 women (of 100,000 giving birth) die in childbirth: maternal mortality has doubled in the last ten years.
Almost one-quarter of the population dies before the age of 40. The infection rate of HIV is estimated at up to 2 per cent of the population. In 2009, the Somare regime reduced its budget allocation for the fight against HIV by 51 per cent.
More than half of all Papua New Guineans cannot read or write. Half of all school-age children do not complete primary school. The quality of education is declining as the school age population increases and the availability of teachers and the construction and maintenance of schools cannot keep pace.
Most primary schools do not have libraries. Reference books for Grades 10 to 12 are not available or are very hard to get. More than 30,000 students sit for the Grade 10 exams, but less than 12,000 get places in Grade 11. Mr Prime Minister, what future are you creating for Papua New Guinea without an educated and healthy population and adequate infrastructure?
Prime Minister, you ... have demonstrated you do not have a clue about financial management.The PAC estimated that at least K1 billion had walked out the door ... without leaving any footprints. The Somare Government has lost touch with the people.
Its priority is to keep itself in power and spend money on luxury projects that people can live without: mining and petroleum companies, television stations, private jets and space satellites. Sickening and shameful, when children are not at school, mothers are dying in childbirth, clinics are closed, and roads badly need maintenance.
Corruption is systemic and systematic. The Somare Government has no respect for Parliament. The Prime Minister hardly ever attends. Debate is suffocated. The Government has no legislative or executive programme at all. The Somare regime is just there to enjoy - to enjoy money, status, power, perks and privilege.
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Labels: PNG Politics
posted by whponline @ 11:08 AM
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