Highlands Highway blocked

ANGRY and frustrated landowners have blocked off 20km of the Highlands Highway – cutting off all traffic and jeopardising commercial transport, The National reports.

The illegal roadblocks start from Wara Simbu up to Chuave, bordering Eastern Highlands.

Aggrieved landowners and claimants gathering for a meeting with Chimbu police commander Supt Joseph Tondop at the Dumun section of the Highlands Highway yesterday. The people had blocked the highway over unsettled highway rehabilitation payments, totalling K67.8 million, owed to them by the national government. 

The landowners living along the highway showed their frustrations after the government failed to settle K67.8 million in outstanding payment under the Highlands Highway rehabilitation programme.

People from Western Highlands, Enga and Southern Highlands, who had planned to travel to Goroka, Lae and Madang, were forced to postpone their trips yesterday morning in Mt Hagen after hearing word of the roadblocks.

Trucks based in the three provinces and laden with tea, coffee and other agricultural products for export and local markets in coastal provinces were stranded in Mt Hagen.

Those in Kundiawa with cargo bound for Lae were stranded in Goroka.

Business houses in Western Highlands said they would be severely affected if the problem prolonged.

Trucking companies said no goods would be transported to the upper highlands region until the highway was fully cleared.

Mt Hagen’s Waghi Valley Transport operations manager Allen Benette said the company had grounded all its trucks bound for Mt Hagen and Goroka.

“There would be no transport until the road is free and the situation is under control. I have spoken to Chimbu police commander Joseph Tondop, who assured me that the road would be cleared by midday today (yesterday),” he said.

Members of the police force in Chimbu, led by Tondop, clearing the felled trees using chainsaws at the Dumun section of the Highlands Highway

Mt Hagen’s Kutubu Transport operations manager Clement Tarere said six trucks were sitting idle while thousands of kina worth of business had gone down the drain.

“Even though we are affected, the landowners also had a point to put across and the relevant authorities have to address it quickly, like they did in other parts of the highlands,” he said.

Lae’s Mapi Transport operations supervisor Michael Arut said they had yet to allow any transport operations but a few trucks, with dry goods bound for wholesale in Southern Highlands, were stranded in Goroka.

He said fuel supplies and other materials for the mining areas were also affected

Ex-BSP boss expresses shock over arrest

FORMER Bank South Pacific boss Garth McIlwain was shocked and completely surprised when he was taken in for questioning by police on Wednesday, The National reports,

He did not know he was going to be charged with fraud and forgery, and made to fork out K5, 000 in cash for bail.

“I have served the PNG banking industry for more than 42 years and have worked with the PNG Banking Corporation, the Credit Corporation and BSP and, in all these years, this is the first instance that I have been faced with such criminal charges, which is very disappointing indeed,” McIlwain told The National yesterday when recounting the four-hour ordeal that he went through, including being locked up like a common criminal in the police cells.

McIlwain told The National that he was initially asked last December to assist police with their investigations into issues relating to court cases involving BSP, and he had kept in contact with the fraud squad.

 “I was cooperating with the fraud squad as they asked me to do, in December, so when I arrived in Port Moresby from Rabaul, I rang an officer there to let them know I was in town.

“When I did that on Monday, I was asked to come into the office on Wednesday.

“I did so, at about 3pm. I was kept there from then until about 5:30pm and was taken to Boroko police station and remained there from 6pm to 7pm.”

After he was charged, McIlwain was allowed to make one telephone call, and he called BSP executive Robin Flemming, who went with lawyer Michael Henao to assist him.

Flemming had brought the K5, 000 bail money.

The National had erroneously reported that Flemming was arrested and charged along with McIlwain. 

“I did not have that kind of money on me; I do not carry that kind of cash and the police told me to pay K5, 000 cash before being released,” McIlwain said.

He was CEO of BSP from 2000 to last year.

He is a naturalised PNG citizen, now retired and living in Kokopo with his family – his wife is from East New Britain.

McIlwain is credited with the successful merger of PNGBC and BSP, now the biggest bank in PNG and the Pacific region.

The utterance and fraud charges he is facing relate to a complaint lodged to police by businessman and former politician Peter Yama.

Yama yesterday distanced himself from the McIlwain arrest, saying he did not intimidate or influence police to make arrests.

“I first complained to police about BSP three, four years ago. Why would the charges take this long if I had such close connections?

“Police see the evidence, they see something is wrong and they acted,” he told AAP.

“This is not tactics of intimidation; I did not go to the police commissioner and tell him to make this happen; I’ve been in Madang, not Port Moresby.

“I do not have a grudge against anybody,” he added.

 

BACA urges Baki to act

A COALITION involving the Transparency International and business houses have slammed the arrest of lawyers and bankers doing their duty, and questioned Police Commissioner Gari Baki’s silence on the behaviour of his policemen, The National reports,

The Business Against Corruption Alliance (BACA) made this strong statement yesterday following the arrest of former chief executive officer of Bank South Pacific Garth McIlwain.

BACA said the harassment and jailing of bank employees and lawyers in the ordinary conduct of their employment duties were illegal and unacceptable.

It said they were frightening examples of what many perceived to be influence being exercised over elements of the police force by external factors.

“They are clear examples of the breakdown of the constitutionally guaranteed rule of law in PNG, and the police commissioner’s silence is a damning indictment of his conduct as commissioner,” BACA said in a statement sent to the media yesterday.

It said PNG was now confronted with a situation where the law was seen by many to be the victim of personal influence.

“Baki’s position as commissioner is untenable if he will not come out publicly and state categorically that this situation is unacceptable to him, that it will end, and that he will issue instructions and ensure his officers abstain from such activities,” BACA said.

It said the situation was threatening the effectiveness and fairness of the legal system, and the confidence of business and investors in PNG.

“It was also a threat to the democratic system and the rule of law, and lucrative large scale projects like the LNG project could be under threat.”

BACA urged Baki to hold an urgent meeting to address this issue.

It said the government and the commissioner must wake up to this threat and take drastic action.

Several attempts to get comments from Baki were unsuccessful.

 

 

Rift widens between Gulf factions

THE rift between Gulf Governor Havila Kavo and local level government presidents backed by the only two other Gulf MPs is widening when Kavo yesterday refuted claims of his lack of performance in office, The National reports.

At a press conference yesterday, Kavo said that calls through a seven-day notice for his dismissal, were  illegal.

The latest development was alleged to have been instigated by the other group as a result of his deferral over a week ago of the swearing-in of LLG presidents, which Kavo said yesterday was necessary adding that the processes had to be considered carefully and had to be in line with certain administrative processes.

He said as the mandated leader of the province, what was being reconsidered was in the best interest of the people of Gulf.

He also questioned why there was a rush by certain individuals to appoint LLG presidents into the provincial assembly.

He said he would  refer Kikori MP Mark Maipakai and Kerema MP Pitom Bombom to the Ombudsman Commission for instigating a provincial assembly meeting in Kerema on Wednesday.

Kavo also referred to section 17 of the Organic Law of Provincial and Local Level Governments (OLPLLG).

During that sitting in Kerema, which he said was an abuse of constitutional right and illegal, nine LLG presidents were sworn in and a motion was passed for a seven-day notice for Kavo to attend the July 7 assembly meeting or be stripped of his governorship.

He added that notices had to be served 14 days earlier.

But yesterday afternoon, another meeting by Bombom and the LLG presidents was convened where the group pledged its solidarity, asking Kavo to turn up for the July 7 assembly sitting.

Bombom challenged Kavo before the presidents and journalists to turn up for the planned sitting if he truly was the mandated head of Gulf like he claimed.

Amongst what was discussed at this meeting was Kavo’s  alleged neglect of his duties and responsibilities by not allowing proper debates on the Gulf provincial budget before their passage for the years 2007, 2008 and last year which was in contravention of section 20 (1) (c) of the OLPLLG.

Also, the governor had not provided a sound position paper for Gulf on certain benefits sharing agreements for the PNG LNG project which may result in the province missing out on essential project funding and other benefits.

Meanwhile, a letter to Kavo last Friday from the secretary for the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs was issued advising the governor to convene an assembly meeting this week.

This had not taken place.

The secretary could not be contacted yesterday to deliberate on the matter.

Pictures of yesterday's protest march in Madang

A woman in the cutthroat world of coffee buying

By AUGUSTINE DOMINIC of CIC

The dramatic increase in coffee prices this year has lured many into the coffee business.

One of them, and the only noticeable female competitor to other male buyers in town,  is Repy Mopafi (pictured) from Bena in the Eastern Highlands province.

Mrs Mopafi parks her tinted white 10-seater Toyota Land Cruiser between Mendikwae Trading and Goroka Bowling Club in Goroka and buys coffee parchment almost every day.

She is outstanding because all other buyers are male and are lined up at one side of the fences of Goroka Council Chamber and Ela Motors while Mrs Mopafi is on their opposite side.

She was buying Arabica parchment Coffee for K5.00 per kilogram when she was approached.

She said she was honest in her dealings which she started in May 2010 and this was prompting many coffee farmers to go and sell their coffee to her.

“Depending on the type of contract I get with factories, I want to do honest buying and am purchasing at a higher price at the moment,” Mrs Mopafi said.

Agents recruiting people illegally to work in New Zealand

The New Zealand High Commission has become aware of individuals and organisations in the community who are allegedly recruiting Papua New Guineans to work in New Zealand picking fruit, under false pretences.

 These individuals have been requesting that people pay them a fee, which is illegal.

The New Zealand High Commission wishes to advise the public that at this stage there are no accredited employers in New Zealand that are currently seeking to recruit from Papua New Guinea or that have indicated that they intend to do so.

While New Zealand does operate a seasonal labour scheme (called the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme), and Papua New Guineans are eligible to participate in the scheme, they must have a job offer from a New Zealand employer who is approved by Immigration New Zealand before applying for a visa.

Any ‘agents’ receiving money as fees from Papua New Guineans for the purpose of going to New Zealand under this scheme are acting illegally.