Sir Michael Somare at ease

Sir Michael with a huge sail fish he caught using a 10-pound fishing line in Murik

SIDELINED prime minister Sir Michael Somare is back home in East Sepik, fishing in his spare time and attending to his electoral duties, The National reports.
Yesterday, he travelled by boat to the Murik Lakes area to meet with his people at Karau village and to hear their grievances.
While on his way, Sir Michael took out his fishing gear and let down the lines.
To his pleasant surprise, Sir Michael caught four huge fish.
The prized catch was a huge sail fish, weighing about 30kg and was about 160cm long.
The other three were mackerels, weighing up to 15kg each, which were shared among his Karau village relatives while the sail fish was brought back to Wewak.
While in Karau, Sir Michael spoke to his working committee on the ground about the progress on the construction of a new church building, improvement to existing infrastructure like the school, water tanks, Telikom’s VSat telecommunication equipment, aid posts and other requirements.

Despite gas, oil, Papua New Guinea remains a mining hub

DESPITE the gas project and other oil-related activities, Papua New Guinea remains a mining country, of which 60% of annual export revenue comes from the mining sector, according to Bank of PNG third quarter bulletin, The National reports.

The country boasts nine mines, where seven are currently in production, namely, Ok Tedi, Porgera, Lihir, Simberi, Tolukuma, Sinivit and Harmony Gold.

Ramu NiCo Ltd is under its final phase of construction while Kainantu mine is under care and maintenance.

Ok Tedi produces copper, with gold and silver as secondary products, while the others produce gold, with silver as their secondary product.

Nautilus Inc Ltd has applied for a mining licence  for its Solwara 1 project, to mine seafloor massive sulphides (SMS) deposits from the sea bed of the Bismarck Sea.

The SMS deposits are highly mineralised with gold, copper, silver, manganese, zinc and nickel.

Some samples assayed register values as high as 15% copper, 15 grams of gold per tonne and 20% zinc.

By comparison, these values triple those of land base prospects.

Nautilus has 14 other Solwara projects under exploration to assess the resources present in these prospects.

Other exploration projects are advancing to stages where they could be expected to progress into full mine operations around 2014-2016.

They are Frieda, Yandera and Wafi-Golpu.

These are significantly large projects that will be producing copper as primary products and gold as secondary products, plus other by-products molybdenum and rhenium which are specific to Yandera.

The increasing number of both land and sea-based exploration projects is an indication of the investors confidence in PNG as a prospective destination.

The Frazer Institute in its 2008-2009 survey of 175 mining nations in the world rated PNG as the number one country as the most prospective country with good government policies without land restrictions and social issues.

It takes years of exploration to develop mines.

Therefore, current exploration programmes would give rise to mines after 10-20 years or more.

Some of the current advance projects, such as Frieda, were explored for more than 40 years.

There was a spur of applications for EL this year with the release of the newly acquired geophysics (aeromagnetic and radiometric) and geochemistry data.

The EU mining sector support programme project made it possible for PNG to acquire these new data.

 

Teachers stranded

Hundreds not paid full leave fare home

 

HUNDREDS of teachers are stranded in various provinces nationwide because of anomalies in their leave entitlements, The National reports.

Two weeks after schools closed for the 2010 academic year, some teachers claimed their entitlements, which are the responsibility of respective provincial education divisions, had been cut in half without explanation while others had not received their entitlements.

Teaching Service Commission (TSC) acting chairman Jerry Kuhena said poor management should be blamed for these shortcomings which teachers face every year of the end of the academic year.

Complaints received from teachers in the past days showed that those stranded were in the two Sepik provinces, Madang and Western Highlands.

The worst affected was Western Highlands where at 500 teachers would not be able to spend Christmas with their loved ones because their travel arrangements were not in order even though a total of K1.6 million had been allocated for leave fares.

Of the total, about 40 are from Southern, New Guinea Islands and Momase regions.

In Madang, teachers stoned the provincial education office, forcing its closure. Reports said at least 50 teachers would not make it home.

TSC Momase regional adviser Joseph Ouyoumb said provinces were duty-bound to disperse teachers’ leave entitlements on time. The entitlements were normally available after two years service at a particular posting.

Other complications arise where teachers have dependents, questions about the most economical route to home provinces and forms of transportation budgetted for.

There are also complaints that local teachers, who are not entitled to travel entitlements, are receiving them, thus, draining the travel budget for mostly coastal teachers.

Elsewhere, some teachers warned of mass withdrawal, claiming that there were injustice and nepotism at the provincial education offices.

 

You make it, you undo it, says judge

By PATRICK TALU

 

NATIONAL Court judge Justice Ambeng Kandakasi said that all the landownership disputes and memorandum agreements issues in relation to the current PNG LNG project has been solely created by the government and the government must find a way forward to resolve these issues, The National reports.

He made the remarks yesterday at the Waigani National Court while suggesting a way forward planning to deal with all the PNG LNG-related issues before Christmas.

Kandakasi, who was to preside over several motions filed by Juha PDL9 landowners and Tuguba Tribe of Hides PDL1 yesterday in relation to the disbursement of the so-called seed capital and the MoA grants for the PNG LNG project, told counsel representing the landowners and the State that a better option was a forward planning as to how best the issues could be resolved.

He suggested to counsel of both parties that they should convene a special meeting to discuss a strategy with him that would put to rest all the issues.

If the discussion was successful, it would then pave the way for an alternative dispute resolution for the issues.

“The government had invited the investors and created opportunities and also created the problems.

“The government has to find solutions to all the problems created before problems related to the PNG LNG project get out of hand,” Kandakasi said.

He warned that if the issues were not settled as promised by government, things would get out of hand and fuel frustrations.

Kandakasi was of the view that all matters related to outstanding MOAa and the seed capital for the LNG project area landowners should be resolved before Christmas.

He would meet the counsel representing the state departments and the plaintiffs’ tomorrow afternoon before reaching an agreement whether to resolve all the issues through alternate dispute resolution or through the court.

 

 

Teachers stranded in Hagen

By JAMES APA GUMUNO

 

MORE than 40 teachers from the Southern, New Guinea Islands and Momase regions are stranded in Western Highlands because their leave fares have been reduced by more than 50%, The National reports.

It was alleged that K1, 000 was used as PMV fares to send some teachers back to their villages and provinces.

A woman teacher from Bougainville, who requested K17, 000 in leave fares to travel home with her family, was only paid K5, 000 last Friday.

Another woman teacher at Tiki Memorial Primary School in Hagen Central, who wanted to travel to Alotau and had asked for K6, 000, was only paid K2, 700.

But, a headmaster of a primary school, travelling from Mt Hagen city to Kotna in the Dei district, was paid K1, 000.

Branch president of the Western Highlands Teachers Association Aita Sanangekepe expressed grave concern yesterday and questioned the leave fares committee on the criteria used to pay teachers’ leave fares.

He said he could not understand why a local teacher, who needed only K8 on a return PMV fare was overpaid, compared with teachers from outside of the province.

Sanangekepe claimed that not one teacher from the Southern, NGI and Momase was paid in full.

He said most of the teachers travelling by air could not do so with their families because the money allocated was not enough.

Sanangekepe said he had learnt from past experiences and had appealed to the authorities last week to ensure all teachers were properly accommodated when they take their break. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

He said the leave fare committee had breached the Teaching Service

Commission Act 130 of 1988 when they underpaid teachers from the coastal provinces and overpaid local teachers.

He said it was a serious matter that he would take up with the concerned authorities.

Business easy with VSAT

DOING business with very small aperture terminal (VSAT) can be very efficient and convenient as it is only a click away with the use of modern technology.

People from Bulolo can now do business and make communication easier through the use of VSAT.

This was made possible after Bulolo MP Sam Basil presented a cheque for K200, 000 from his district support grant (DSIP) to Telikom PNG for VSAT rentals to continue the service in his electorate.

He said the payment was worthwhile as the service would go a long way in helping local business and improving the academic performance of students.

Basil said the people were happy with the VSAT service because it had added more value to their life in terms of communication.

 

 

Lae boy ‘Greg’ wins Digicel Stars

By MALUM NALU
Lae boy Greg Aaron has emerged as Papua New Guinea’s latest singing sensation after winning the lucrative Digicel Stars competition on Sunday night.

Greg Aaron belts out another number at the Ahi Festival in Lae last week

The 26-year-old, from the Ahi village of Yanga, in Lae, developed a cult following all over Papua New Guinea this year and Sunday was the icing on the cake.
Aaron pocketed K10, 000 and a major recording contract as his prize for winning the competition, which brings together the best singing talent from all over PNG.
He was at home in Yanga, after bringing the house down at the Ahi Festival last week, when he was named as winner on EMTV on Sunday night.
Yesterday (Monday) he gave the kudos to family members in Yanga, the other five Ahi villages, his Thronz band members as well as supporters from all over Lae and PNG who texted in their support.
“Last night (Sunday), we had a big celebration,” Aaron said.
“The village and the Thronz band had a big celebration at Yanga village.
“I had everything poured on me from coke, to beer, to coffee by celebrating family and supporters.
“I want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who voted for me, my band members, my manager, everyone in Lae and the six Ahi villages of Yalu, Kamkumung, Hengali, Butibam, Wagang and Yanga.
“A special ‘thank you’ to major sponsor Digicel and all the others.”
Aaron said his immediate plan now was to have a break from his Thronz band and concentrate on recording a solo album next month.
“My plan now is to have a break from the band and have a couple of solo gigs,” he said.
“By mid January, we might start work on the album project.”