PM hits back

House rejects OC's Moti report

By ISAAC NICHOLAS

PARLIAMENT yesterday voted to reject the Ombudsman Commission's report on the Julian Moti Affair after Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare delivered a scathing attack on the commission, The National reports.
The Prime Minister described the report as stupid and disappointing, and accused the commission of sneaking it through the "back door" into the office of the Speaker and onto the floor of Parliament.
Sir Michael hit back yesterday at the report, tabled in Parliament last week under the Government's nose, which recommended criminal investigations by police against the Prime Minister and former deputy prime minister Don Polye.
Sir Michael said the contents of the report "speak very poorly of the integrity and objectivity of the Ombudsman Commission in the conduct of its duties".
"It provided no concrete evidence and yet made very damaging claims against me,"the Prime Minister said.
"Despite its bold claims on page 40 that its findings were based on 'hard evidence', the Ombudsman Commission provided none.
"Its arguments to justify its findings remind me of a spider's web. The web is full of holes and gaps although it is specifically woven to try and trap something," Sir Michael said.
He said the Ombudsman Commission relied heavily on the word of one person whose account had been denied and disputed by everyone.
"Let me make this statement once more. I did not give any directions for Moti to be flown by Defence Force aircraft to the Solomon Islands," the Prime Minister said.
"I helped bring about the birth of Papua New Guinea and I will always act in the best interest of the people of this country.
"Reading through the report, there is no direct evidence that I, as the Prime Minister, gave directions for Moti to be flown to the Solomon Islands by the PNG Defence Force using the Casa aircraft.
"The imputation by the Ombudsman Commission report that this was so is clearly not based on evidence. There is simply no evidence linking me to the actual evacuation of Moti and the modus operandi of the evacuation."
He said the "circumstantial" evidence which the Ombudsman Commission relied on to make its findings, deals with purported communication between the late Barney Rongap and the late Joseph Asaigo and Leonard Louma - for Moti to be allowed to go to the Solomon Islands - not for Moti to be airlifted by a PNGDF aircraft to Munda on Oct 10, 2006.
"Therefore, finding No.12, that 'direction to transport Moti to Solomon Islands came from the Prime Minister' was not based on any evidence and is untenable."
He said of the eight recommendations, one said that the commissioner of police should conduct investigation for possible breaches of the Criminal Code by Government officials including the Prime Minister and then deputy prime minister Don Polye.
"Unfortunately, the Ombudsman Commission did not give any reasons at all for this very damaging recommendation," Sir Michael said.
"It did not indicate, for example, which part of the Criminal Code Act I, as the Prime Minister or the then deputy prime minister, may have breached.
"This, therefore, rendered this part of the report and recommendation useless and futile," Sir Michael said.

'OC report sneaked into Parliament'

PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare has accused the Ombudsman Commission of acting above the law in sneaking into Parliament the Julian Moti report, The National reports.
"It is arguable that the report was improperly tabled in Parliament in contravention to section 220 of the Constitution," Sir Michael said in a speech to Parliament.
Sir Michael said the procedures for tabling an Ombudsman Commission report to Parliament are set out in section 220.
"Basically, any report must be tabled through the Head of State acting on advice from the National Executive Council.
"In my view, this report did not follow the prescribed procedures and was sneaked in through the back door," he said.
"It is an abuse of Parliament privilege.
"For an organisation that is supposed to conduct itself within the laws, the Ombudsman Commission had again shown itself to be above the law."
Sir Michael, in concluding his statement, said the proceedings in the supreme court of Queensland and the subsequent judgment on the Moti issue was very instructive.
"I urge honourable Members of this House to familiarise themselves with the documents tendered in that court and the ruling by Brisbane supreme court Justice Debra Mullins.
"Suffice to say, Papua New Guinea was unwittingly drawn into the Moti issue by agents of another government trying to carry out a political plan contrived by their government to discredit Moti.
"The lesson here is our law enforcement agents must act independently and not allow themselves to be dictated to by outsiders," Sir Michael said.

Indon president starts 2-day visit

INDONESIAN president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrives in Port Moresby this
afternoon from Australia where he called for regional cooperation yesterday in tackling the problem of people smuggling, The National reports.
Yudhoyono and his delegation of nearly 200 are due to arrive in three aircraft at 3pm today for the two-day visit which includes a courtesy call on Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane and bilateral talks with Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.
Australian media reported yesterday that Australia and Indonesia had agreed to work more closely on combating human smuggling and terrorism and would upgrade annual talks between leaders and officials to a level enjoyed by Australia's closest ally, the US.
The Indonesian embassy in Port Moresby said the delegation included Australian-educated foreign minister Marty Natelegawa, 12 government ministers, three members of parliament and six governors.
Human smuggling has been a major concern in PNG in recent months, although
PNG-Indonesia border issues may feature prominently also in talks in Papua New Guinea, observers noted yesterday.
"Australia, as a destination country and Indonesia, as a transit country, cannot resolve this issue by ourselves," Yudhoyono said earlier at a Canberra news conference with prime minister Kevin Rudd.
"This framework would include arrangements on temporary transit in Indonesia and how they will be relocated."
Australia has seen an increase in refugees arriving by boat in the past year, most of them reaching Australian waters via Indonesia. More than 20 boats have arrived so far this year, including a vessel intercepted yesterday, Australian media reported.
Rudd welcomed Indonesia's plan to introduce a law this year to criminalise the smuggling of human beings as part of efforts to combat transnational crime.
Indonesia has worked closely with Australia to combat the terrorist threat posed by groups linked to al-Qaeda, and the two leaders pledged to enhance action to combat militants.
"Indonesian successes in disrupting and dismantling terrorist networks and in the arrest of terrorist leaders have dealt a significant blow to the threat of terrorism in the region," Rudd said.
Sources said broader cooperation with PNG was due to increase as Waigani upgrades its relationship with Indonesia to include annual talks between leaders, ministers and military and law enforcement officials.
Talks are also likely to touch on how countries could work closely on climate change and regional stability through groups such as Asean where Indonesia is supporting PNG's moves to become a full member.
Indonesia, the world's most-populous Muslim nation and the world's third-largest democracy, is PNG's nearest Asian neighbour, sharing the common land border at the province of Papua.
Sir Michael will receive president Yudhoyono on arrival at Jackson International Airport where there will be a guard of honour. At 4.30pm, he will call on Sir Paulias.
The bilateral talks with Sir Michael will start at 9am tomorrow followed by signing of MoUs and a media conference before the delegation leaves on a six-hour flight to Jakarta.

LNG money seen to influence rates

Final financing deal to determine how much dollars to stay in local economy

By SHEILA LASIBORI

THE finalisation of financing arrangements with lenders towards the PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project is spreading some cloud over how the interest rates are going to perform in the coming years, The National reports.

This is because the final agreement will determine how much of the money lent would be retained in the local economy and how much would go back overseas.

If more dollars from the borrowings are retained in the local banking system, the play of the existing rate would be affected.

Generally, however, when the project gets underway, the rates will increase, according to Paul Crimmins, the head of Westpac’s relationship banking.

He said until financial close happens, it was yet to know what would be the internal contracts awarded to domestic and foreign companies on the US$15 billion (K40 billion) LNG project which was a US dollar denominated project.

These was part of the discussions during yesterday’s economic outlook seminar, part of a series of events marking Australian week cerebrations held at the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby.

Bank of PNG Governor Loi Bakani said: “Basically it comes down to the flows in and out of the country.

“At this stage, the financial close coming up … we are not yet able to get a clear indication of what contracts will be done locally and those in US dollars done overseas.”

He also said there were exemptions given to companies under the project.

“That is, where most of the transaction is going to take place,” he said.

ANZ’s Jim Yap said it all depended on the currencies’ strengths, when at the moment, the Australian dollar was floating on a high rate.

“Taking that into account, whilst the kina may have the ability to appreciate because the demand of the currency gets higher in view of the PNG LNG project … so there is an underlying demand, but in terms of cross currency exchange rate, it may be a bit of a challenge.”

Mr Bakani also said there was a working group putting together a submission for the proposed offshore sovereign wealth fund.

The submission is expected to be presented to the National Executive Council (NEC) in June.

“Once that is in place, that will take care of Government inflows,” he said, adding the inflows will be such that not everything will come into the country all at once.

Ombudsman loses powers

MPs vote 83-0 to remove watchdog inquiry rights

 

PARLIAMENT has taken the first steps to weaken the powers of the Ombudsman Commission, and establishing a parliamentary Ombudsman committee that will have powers to make inquiries of its own, The National reports..

Parliament voted 83-0 to amend section 27(4) of the Constitution to remove the powers of the Ombudsman in issuing directives to ministers and heads of departments.

Section 27(4) allows the Ombudsman to issue directives to prevent payments out of public funds, or trips by MPs, or other actions by these office holders if it (the commission) feels impropriety is involved.

For example, the commission has, in the past, used this provision to stop MPs taking overseas trips when it felt the trips were a waste of public funds.

The commission had also used this provision to prevent cheques issued by the Finance Department if it felt the motives were political.

The commission had, in the past, used this provision to block the release of electoral development fund cheques for MPs close to the 2002 and 2007 general elections.

The commission also froze the RESI funds last year using this provision after allegations emerged that millions of kina were misappropriated and given away without following proper procurement processes.

Some MPs themselves had gone to the media to complain about this misuse of RESI funds, particularly in Kerevat and Aiyura national high schools. But these MPs did not oppose the bill.

The amendments were introduced as private business motion by Esa’ala MP Moses Maladina.

Mr Maladina said section 27(4) had been used by the Ombudsman Commission on numerous occasions to stop the issuing of cheques, thus, preventing the implementation of Government policies and initiatives.

“We want to make it very clear for the purposes of Hansard that the action of the Ombudsman in issuing such directives using section 27(4) is wrong.”

Mr Maladina said from time to time, the Ombudsman had also utilised section 27(4) in issuing directives to airlines in an attempt to prevent leaders travelling to conduct their duties.

He said on many occasions, there had been public physical confrontations between officers of the Ombudsman and leaders at the international terminal.

He said it was not the intention of Parliament for the Ombudsman to utilise section 27(4) to confront leaders in this manner.

On the Ombudsman committee, Mr Maladina said the committee’s responsibilities were to address Ombudsman reports presented in Parliament and function like the Public Accounts Committee.

“Where the PAC deals with financial issues, the Ombudsman committee should deal with administrative issues.

“If, for example, lives are lost because of lack of medicine at the Port Moresby General Hospital and because people are turned away due to lack of beds, despite allocations of millions of kina in the health budget, it could be an issue which this committee can make a parliamentary inquiry,” Mr Maladina said.

 

House favours bill to have separate judges

THE National and Supreme courts will have separate judges sitting on benches of the two high courts, The National reports.

Parliament gave its first approval with an 85-0 vote for the bill relating to the appointment of separate and distinct judges to sit on the Supreme Court and National Court separately.

The amendments, tabled by Esa’ala MP Moses Maladina, stated that unlike other jurisdictions, “in PNG we have both judges presiding over both the National and Supreme courts”.

“This is not only inconvenient but also gives rise to the issue of capacity.

“We have come to a stage where the population has increased and are at a stage of development now where we require a separate and distinct Supreme Court with fulltime judges and a separate and

distinct National Court with

its own judges,” he said.

Mr Maladina said the amendments had been made in consultation with the Attorney-General and with the Chief Justice.

He said this was also in line with the law and justice sector white paper that was approved by Parliament.

In the law and justice white paper, the recommendation made by the Chief Justice and the judiciary was the creation of a permanent Supreme Court with the best judges appointed fulltime to that court.

The amended section 161 provided that the Supreme Court will not have fewer than five judges and those judges will be chosen from among the National Court judges.

Mr Maladina said section 164 of the Constitution also provided for the increase in the number of judges from 20 to not more than 40.

 

LNG 'landowners' protest for funds

DISGRUNTLED people, claiming to be landowners of the LNG project areas in the Southern Highlands province, fronted up yesterday at the Finance and Treasury office in Port Moresby and demanded quick payment of outstanding landowner funds, The National reports.

They printed placards stating that the operations of the multi-billion kina project would cease if their demands were not met by the Government.

The groups, claiming to be landowners of Hides, Angore, East Mananda, Juha, Moran and Kutubu threatened that the LNG project may not proceed if the Government failed to fast track the release of the funds.

They said the funds they claimed were the memorandum of agreement (MoA) funds, special segment grants (SSG) and other grants which they claimed was  promised to them by the Government.

Also, another disgruntled group gathered outside the office of the Department of Petroleum and Energy in Konedobu, demanding similar MoA and SSG payments.

Group spokesman, Adam Liyako, who claimed to be a landowner of Moran pipeline area, said the Government had promised them after the Kokopo forum last year that the payment of the funds would be made to all incorporated landowner groups (ILGs) but the Government had failed to honour its commitments to this stage.

He said the landowners had been living on hired vehicles and money in the city since last year and could not pay them off.

Mr Liyako said the fault lay with the Government to bring them to Port Moresby at the first place to attend the BSA forums and keep them waiting in vain without releasing the funds promised in them.

The spokesman said many of the landowners had passed away while waiting for the funds.

He called on the Government to fast track the payment if it wished to proceed with the project in their province.