From PAUL OATES
"Quis custodiet ipsos! Custodes? (Who is to guard the guards themselves?) Juvenal (63 -130)
I refer to the article below in The National on Tue 29Dec09
If the PNG Public Service Commission is currently under investigation, then all those who have been identified by the Public Accounts Committee should be required to take paid leave until after their investigation is complete. How can the PNG public service have any faith in their Service's leadership if the rot apparently starts from the top?
If there is prima facie evidence that the PS Commissioners may have breached the law, the recipients should not be allowed to continue to act in their role as Commissioners until the matter is resolved. No wonder that there are constant disputes over 'missing' millions of Kina.
Where overpayments are detected there must be immediate action. There are only two possible alternatives:
1. There has been an unintentional mistake by both those paying the out the public monies and those receiving the funds, or
2. There has been intentional theft.
In the first instance, those who have received funds they were not entitled to must demonstrate they didn't know they were being overpaid. They must then pay these public monies back immediately. If necessary, recipients of overpayments must either negotiate with their employer (the PNG government) for pay the overpayment back by instalments on their salary within a very limited time or they go out and get a bank loan like everyone else has to.
The longer they take to pay bank the overpayment, the more they should be charged compound interest on the overpaid funds. Recipients MUST not come to believe they actually own the overpaid money as these funds have virtually been an interest free loan (from the public taxpayers). These actions are essential otherwise it sets a benchmark that others could expect to follow.
In the second instance, it is a matter for the police, public prosecutor and courts. While no one should be declared guilty until proven so in a court,
there might be some possible leniency offered by the court if the recipients paid all overpaid money back immediately as an act of good faith.
Any departure from the above alternatives will give an entirely wrong message to the rest of the PNG public service.
Paul Oates
_________________________________________________
Tue, 29/12/2009
'PSC bosses overpaid by millions'
Source:
By BARNABAS ORERE PONDROS
THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has established that commissioners of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and several staff received significant "extra" payments of salary and entitlements running into "millions of kina" and there is sufficient evidence for investigations into the commission.
Government insiders said the figures actually run into "millions of kina", and according to a PAC document ""there is prima facie evidence of possible
breaches of law by Commissioners, officers and staff of the commission sufficient to warrant referral for further investigations".
At this stage, no figures were disclosed because "there is evident confusion as to the true entitlements of Constitutional office holders".
But according to the document, an executive summary of PAC findings, obtained by The National, the PSC "admits the fact of all of the payments,
but challenges the amount of those over payments".
Despite the challenge and confusion the PAC "finds that commissioners of the Public Service Commission accepted large overpayments with no query or demur".
The PAC also found that there were significant failures of management, command control, accountability and record keeping within the PSC.
The PAC considered this a reckless indifference and said commissioners "should be relieved of their positions" and the matters be urgently
addressed by the Government.
PAC investigations into the PSC stem from a report from the Auditor-General dating back to Dec 28, 2004, and several amended reports.
Although the PAC criticised the quality of the Auditor-General's original report, it endorsed its findings and related amendments.
On that, the PAC resolved that its findings be presented to Parliament as per the Public Finances (Management) Act and Permanent Committees Act.
For a start, the PAC advocates for an urgent review into the receipts of salary and allowances of all commissioners and other Constitutional office
holders.
It also resolved that it would approve and direct the findings of the Auditor-General's office report to the Ombudsman, the Public Prosecutor, the
Solicitor General, the Police and the Department of Personnel Management.
Furthermore, that the salaries and remuneration commission urgently consider the content of the Auditor-General's report and clarify the true
entitlements of Constitutional office holders in order that overpayments and other abuses may be identified and stopped.
The Government source said such issues of overpayment of salaries and entitlements are a protracted issue and a chronic problem in the public
service that needs to addressed.
"And this is uncalled for, especially from the premiere public service body in Papua New Guinea," the source said, adding "for how long can we allow
such abuse of funds to continue when the majority of people in rural areas, and taxpayers are deprived of essential services".
PAC member Sam Basil, when commenting on these findings, stressed that the Government must provide relevant support to ensure recommendations presented are implemented and achieve results.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Papua New Guinea must prepare for Mexico climate change meet
By REG RENAGI
So much for all the media hype about the big deal we have to have to save our planet. The recent UN climate summit in
Next year, PNG leaders (yes, the same politicians) will again talk up a storm to convince its still illiterate 6 million people about how great our new REDD paper will be for the Mexico meet. In
PNG must seriously analyze what
This failed conference should tell PNG a lot about the world political order today. The global human race club has two types of membership. They form within two sub-clubs: the rich and poor men’s clubs. But in reality the fate of the world is exclusively in the hands of the rich man’s club (G20 group). They think they should always call the shots because they have the financial resources, high technology, well organized government and affluent society, etc. A member of the poor man’s club like PNG and other small poor nations, unfortunately have no real say at all (or do we?). Maybe one day.
However, if there was ever any deal of some kind, then one can say it was between the US and China, India, South Africa, and Brazil which established a kind of a negotiating bloc. The four developing nations asked for and got the following: no compulsory limits on carbon emissions, no emissions reduction unless Western nations pay for them, no international monitoring of emission reductions if not paid for by the West and lastly, not to use global warming as an excuse to impose protectionist policy of trade restrictions on those who do not reduce carbon emissions.
What can PNG learn from this? First of all, be better prepared for
PNG must have its own national “Climate Change Action Plan’ now. Many things can be done by ourselves without waiting to go overseas and attend expensive ‘talk-fests’ at the behest of the rich men’s club. We only show that we are really helpless without the West propping us up every time.
Port Moresby's new fountain
This is Port Moresby's new fountain at the suburb of Gerehu, which was opened on Christmas night by National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop.
It is a major attraction, especially at night, with different coloured lights.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wobblies and Roosters
We've just had some very welcome rain and although no run off yet, the grass has started to grow. There's a patch of grass just outside the backdoor that seems irresistible to the wobblies and kangaroosters. Mrs Wobbly is busy keeping an eye on her spouse while Mummy roo has a Joey that is about to outgrow her favourite refuge. The blue crested pigeons are hanging around for some stale biscuits.
Sorry...
To my faithful followers, and particularly the critics, I have had two digital cameras either stolen or lost from me, or wrecked, over the last two months, hence, my slowness in getting you pictures.
However, I now have a new digital camera, so you can be assured of a personal touch of photographs and stories from me, from
I can assure you of the best in 2010.
Papua New Guinea poised for a surge in growth
By MIKE STEKETE in The Australian
PAPUA New
So you may be surprised to hear that it has bright prospects by developing world standards, which could see it rise rapidly through the ranks. But whether those prospects can be fulfilled, particularly in terms of benefits to the mass of the people, is another matter.
The nation of 6.3 million people is enjoying its longest run of economic growth since independence in 1975, seven years and counting. The government set a target many saw as fanciful: growing by 5 per cent a year after inflation by the end of this decade. This year, despite the international recession, it grew by 6.2 per cent and last month's budget forecast 8.5 per cent next year. But that is just warming up.
A few weeks ago, the PNG government signed a deal that promises to earn $35 billion in the next 30 years through the export of liquefied natural gas. The gas fields are to be developed in the Southern Highlands, with pipelines running 300km to the coast, then another 415km underwater to a processing plant outside
The project, a partnership between ExxonMobil, Australian company Oil Search, the PNG government and others, involves an investment of $16bn; this in a country whose gross domestic product was $13.7bn last year and whose exports are less than $6bn a year. Visitors say signs of the new affluence already are apparent in
Yet there is a sense of foreboding among many experts on PNG. What are the chance of the benefits from all this development flowing through to the mass of the population?
"Right now, I would say very little," says Jenny Hayward-Jones, a former Australian Department of Foreign Affairs officer who runs the
It is just that the past does not provide a great deal of confidence. At the time of independence, PNG ranked 77th out of 150 countries on the UN Human Development Index, which measures not only income but also factors such as education and life expectancy. Now, despite big projects such as Bougainville, Ok Tedi and Lihir, PNG comes 148th out of 182 countries, just above
Average life expectancy is 54 years and the infant mortality rate 64 per 1000 live births, much worse than the figures for indigenous people in
Prime Minister Michael Somare bridles at such figures, saying people in the villages always have plenty to eat. But in a paper commissioned by the Lowy Institute, Laurence Chandy, a former senior economist with the PNG government, says those in extreme poverty typically are malnourished, vulnerable to infectious diseases, poor harvests, natural disasters and crime and lack access to jobs, land, education, health care, clean water and transport.
Chandy quotes the PNG government's data: 35 per cent of births are supervised by healthcare professionals, 45 per cent of those of school-leaving age completed primary education and 27 per cent of the road network is considered to be in good condition.
Keith Jackson, a former teacher in PNG who subsequently held a senior position in the ABC, and Paul Oates, a former patrol officer, have calculated that health spending per person in PNG averages $38 a year, compared with $5461 for indigenous people in the
John Kleinig, a former teacher, says the school where he worked in Rabaul 40 years ago was better resourced than most schools in NSW at the time. A prime mover in a private charitable project in Oro Province that has set up a community-based program to provide resources and teacher training for schools, as well as health and agriculture programs, he says schools these days lack even the most basic resources, such as paper and pencils. "Teachers write lessons on the blackboard because, although textbooks exist, there generally is no money to purchase them," Kleinig says. Staffing schools is a problem, with teachers often suffering from diseases such as typhoid and malaria.
The Chandy paper points out that, despite recent high economic growth rates in PNG, in only three of the past six years have they exceeded the rapid rate of population growth. On one estimate, extreme poverty fell by 8.8 percentage points in the five years to 2008, though this was not enough to make up for the increase in the late 1990s and early part of this decade. Gross domestic product per capita remains below its 1996 level and will not catch up until 2014, assuming the government's growth forecasts are accurate.
Chandy diagnoses PNG's problem as the equivalent of bad circulation. Limited financial development and a rugged geography mean most transactions occur locally. Government revenue in the five years to 2008 rose from 23 per cent of GDP to almost 31 per cent but little has found its way to poor areas. Chandy says lack of public infrastructure isolates the poor and creates "a series of geographical poverty traps".
Some, including an urban elite, are benefiting. So are some landholders: Exxon recently handed out the equivalent of $500 per person to 1000 people under a benefit sharing agreement in an area where the company is building a large airstrip. This is more than the average annual household income of people in the area.
Corruption is one problem in PNG: Transparency International ranks it 151st out of 180 countries and says it is slipping further. The way the government does business does not help. Chandy says it justifies channelling funds, including cash transfers for individuals, through MPs and landowners as the best way of getting money to the poor. This method of distributing funds has grown from 15 per cent to 35 per cent of the development budget but there is no effective monitoring of the spending.
Chandy urges the PNG government to evaluate future foreign investment not just in terms of government revenue but its contribution to creating jobs. In the absence of a radically different approach by government, the LNG project and the high rate of economic growth accompanying it "will reinforce the existing structure of the economy in which the poor are largely excluded".
The time has come to assert more responsibility over PNG's national development, he said earlier this year, and part of that would involve an "aid exit strategy".
Hayward-Jones says that, while this makes sense in the long run, aid from
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By REG RENAGI
However, it is important to be vigilant. We must be more aware of the offshore market conditions so we do not rush in without first assessing the market.
The government must do its own due diligence. Its financial advisors must not simply believe everything they are told by the overseas financial institutions until they have done their own investigation.
They must first investigate, analyze and confirm that the source (Banks, finance companies, etc) giving us the offshore option is also applying the same effective strategies themselves, and that the information given is truly genuine, and from reliable financial advice service sources.
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the benefits of placing funds (whether public, private or individual investors) in offshore funds (companies, trusts and investments). But let’s always be on guard that while some of this information may be correct, a lot of it can also be incorrect.
A common perception prevails that it is expensive, and may not be viable (especially for the average person).
So let us look at some reasons why an offshore funds investing can be an alternative investment choice for PNG.
Firstly, if we structure the offshore company correctly (this is vitally important) we can gain substantial tax benefits.
Second, we can access investments that we may not be able to invest here due to a narrow-base market.
Third, an offshore bank or company also suffers none of the restrictions we may currently have. It can freely invest in these investments that can yield from 25 per cent to several 100 per cent a year.
Presently there may be existing constraints in government regulations regarding foreign prospectuses to anyone here, but can be sent to foreign companies.
What is more, people set up an offshore financial structure (company) to manage investment funds for asset protection, privacy and confidentiality. In as far as international tax planning goes; an offshore funds investment has the advantageous use of foreign jurisdictions and their tax rules for reduction of tax liability.
There is also nothing wrong in keeping the money in our Central Bank, but there may be other inherent technical constraints that may take time to review.
In general, offshore investing is also a good strategy to diversify our country’s investment range. So apart from investing in PNG, it can also be a safe and good investment practice for PNG to have its surplus money in good international funds management jurisdiction.
Here our money is reinvested in several other high-yielding financial instruments to maximize upon good high investment rate of returns many International financial institutions and investment banks offer to its international clients.
On the other hand, while it is not that difficult to set up a Foreign Investment Fund as some people have recently suggested with surplus proceeds from our LNG in PNG, diversifying in an offshore investment opportunity is good investment practice. This way, we are simply not putting all our eggs in the one investment basket.
There are several prudent hedging strategies the government can use. Once done, we can then use creative financing to borrow offshore and loan to smaller
The power of OPM (Other People’s Money) allows the required flexibility to diversify our financial market and hedge against risks of providing offshore loans to other Pacific states. Such an onshore facility allows us to relend at lower but competitive interests rates.
OPM is a preferred option as it is not good investment strategy to use one’s own money, but the banks to leverage favourable interest rates.
Another good way to have a vibrant and diversified financial market is to create a futures market base in PNG.
We can now set up our own commodities futures and options exchange as opposed to the present passive local bourse (PomSox). Once set up, we then gradually and systematically build up a diversified range of investment opportunities onshore. The futures exchange can annually add a variety of new financial instruments for daily trading activity.
A futures exchange allows public (institutional, banks/finance companies, private and individual small-time) investors to do investment trading onshore than overseas. We can create wealth within our country now by trading futures contracts on common commodities like coffee, cocoa, copra, oil palm, crude oil, sugar, orange juice, pork bellies, currencies, financial indexes, to mention just a few.
The exchange can further dual list other commodities commonly traded on overseas futures (and options) exchanges. This will result in a greatly enhanced trading flexibility, increased volume, lower risk hedging factor and high leverage returns for investors; among others.
The government must also consider lowering onshore banking interest rates to around 2.5 and 3 per cent so the majority of our people are fully involved in growing our economy.
More onshore business opportunities can be realized by our people if the government is prepared now by being more innovative and create a vibrant financial market.
The country is ready for other alternative investment choices for our people. This must now be PNG’s immediate wealth creation strategy within the next five years as part of our government’s national strategic wealth plan for Papua New Guineans.
We can no longer wait and watch only foreigners acquire wealth at our expense.