Empty house

19 ministers missing, no one to hear grievances

 

By ISAAC NICHOLAS

 

THE whole front bench of government was empty with only 14 of the 33 ministers present during the parliament session last Friday, The National reports. 

This has drawn criticisms from both within government backbench and the opposition that some of the arguments presented during grievance debate would not be taken seriously and a waste of time.

Abau MP Sir Puka Temu said it was a "sad day" for Papua New Guinea with the whole government front bench empty.

The empty front bench is usually filled by the prime minister, deputy prime minister, finance and treasury minister, justice minister and attorney-general and commerce and industry minister.

The only other key ministers present included leader of government business and National Planning Minister Paul Tiensten, Foreign Affairs Minister Don Polye, Forest Minister Timothy Bonga and Fisheries Minister Ben Semri.

Sir Puka said there were 33 ministers of state and only a handful present to hear grievance from members.

"The whole front bench is empty.

"Our people deserve a hearing of the executive government.

"The people's house must be an active house.

"How can state ministers hear our grievance and put things into action?"

Sir Puka said there must be a select parliamentary committee that must sit down and address very important suggestions and ideas brought forward by members of parliament.

"How can we change the laws relating to the resources? We must have the select parliamentary committee go through the debate and if it means bringing in amendments to parliament, it must be done," Sir Puka said.

Lae MP Bart Philemon also hit out at the empty government bench, including physically making a head count of ministers on the floor of parliament.

"Fourteen ministers present out of 33. It is a shame to see the front bench empty."

Philemon said in the Australian federal parliament, the front bench was always full.

"What is the difference between Australia and Papua New Guinea? What a shame!"

Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru said it was disappointing that state ministers were not present to hear the MPs' grievances.

"The front bench disappointingly is not in parliament to hear the debate.

"It is the only opportunity for us MPs to debate issues and ministers to take note."

Agiru also called on each minister to bring to parliament their performance report during their terms as ministers and also challenged the provincial governors to do the same.

Agiru urges review on forest legislation

SOUTHERN Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru has called for a review of the Forestry Act to allow equity participation instead of landowners being mere royalty collectors, The National reports.

Agiru, in a series of questions to Forest Minister Timothy Bonga, called for a moratorium on issuing of new forestry and fishing licences to ensure there were enough resources available for future generations.

"The people are mere recipients of logging levy and royalties.

"Can the minister introduce amendments to the Forestry Act for landowners to become equity participants in the sector?

"In that way, landowners will participate meaningfully in the development of their resources instead of being just recipients of royalties," he said.

Bonga said a review of the Forestry Act was long overdue and promised to bring amendments to parliament for landowners to be equity partners in projects.

"We have to sit down with landowners and all other stakeholders to bring amendments that will give greater recognition to landowners and for them to become equity partners instead of royalty collectors," he said.

Agiru followed that up during grievance debate by thanking Bonga for making a commitment to review forestry laws.

"We are allowing foreigners to rape our forests and I am glad that the minister has made a commitment to revisit and bring in amendments to the forest sector to allow our people equal participation in the development of their resources," he said.

He said this must apply to the fisheries sector "where millions of kina are being squandered leaving resource owners with nothing".

Agiru, in a statement that got cheers and claps from the members on the floor and the public gallery, said customary land was "being sold away and that must be discouraged".

He said in Southern Highlands, the provincial government had made it clear that no customary land must be sold to outside interests.

Such land can be leased.

"That is the only asset our people have and I thank former lands minister Sir Puka Temu for bringing in legislations to safeguard customary land."

Agiru said the LNG project would sustain the economy over the next 30 years.

"Why don't we reserve our forest or our fish for the future?

"We should not be forever friends with our overseas development partners.

"The PNG economy will realise K130 billion in the 30-year life of the LNG project.

"Why can't we ride on the LNG money and preserve our fisheries and forest resources for the future generations?" Agiru asked.

Unions want K125 million repaid before July 31

TRANSPORT sector unions have given the government until July 31 to repay K125 million of contributors funds back to Nasfund, The National reports.

The National Airline Employees Association, the National Air Pilots Union, Aircraft Engineers Association and the Maritime and Transport Workers Union issued a joint statement on the controversial issuance of Sovereign Community Infrastructure Treasury Bills by Nasfund.

Sector union leaders John Mahuk (PNGM & TWU), Edward Foe (NAEA), Captain Joseph Kumasi (NAPU) and Geoffrey Atiken called on the Ombudsman Commission to investigate the ministers involved.

The demands from the transport sector unions included:

*An independent bo­dy to conduct investigations and for the government to immediately repay the K125 million with 7.05% interest by July 31;

*Those responsible for the disbursement of the funds must face criminal charges and an interim board be set-up with fair representation because the workers had lost trust and confidence in the management and the running of Nasfund by the current board;

*Senior ministers in­volved should be referred to the Ombudsman Commission;

*A remedial plan be immediately put in place to stop unnecessary use of contributors funds; and,

*That if the money earmarked for the Ko­ko­po project has been misappropriated and used to start new businesses then the contributors should have allocated shares.

On behalf of the transport sector unions, Mahuk said their interest was to safeguard the members' funds and they did not want to see a repetition of Nasfund board's "mismanagement and misguided ambition to satisfy the government and its needs".

"Members have not forgotten the 15% write-down being experienced some years back due to mismanagement of the superannuation funds," he added.

Fish feed to boost industry

FISH farmers in Papua New Guinea, especially those who specialise in trout and tilapia farming, are set to improve  production with fish feed to be made available soon, The National reports.

The National Fisheries Authority (NFA) in collaboration with Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Department of Agriculture and Livestock had researched and formulated a feed using local ingredients.

Trialling of this feed under farming conditions in the past five years had resulted in the semi-commercial production of fish feed.

In the past, feed, especially for trout, was imported from overseas until recently.

With the increased number of fish farming activities happening around the country, the demand for a proper fish feed had increased.

NFA and its partners have been working to address the demand through the establishment of mini-feed mills and research and development to  find a locally available, affordable and nutritious fish feed.

NFA displayed the innovative products during the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) show earlier this month in Lae to promote fisheries and marine resources activities.

During the show, NFA displayed several 25kg bags of fish feed which was eye-catching for the fish farmers.

The farmers were so keen to learn  the techniques, the ingredients, equipment the processes involved.

NFA's aquaculture and inland fisheries division, responsible for fresh water aquaculture and inland fish farming, is taking the lead in this development, headed by pioneer aquaculturist Jacob Wani.

Currently, the number of fish farming activities – both fresh water and marine areas – have increased overwhelmingly as a result of NFA's support to the fish farmers through the project development fund.    

The NARI show had given opportunities for NFA to participate and promote innovation in fisheries and also to carry out awareness regarding NFA project development funding (PDF) activities.

It also gave an opportunity for NFA to liaise with provincial fisheries division and the fisheries cooperatives, especially the fishermen and fish farmers to showcase their products at the show and meet the fish buyers to supply fisheries products.  

Ok Tedi women go into business

Caption: Women of Lower Ok Tedi posing in front of their new buses which they handed over to Lower Ok Tedi Investment Limited to be used at OTML's Bige dredging project.

 

Women living in areas that are being affected by the operations of the Ok Tedi mine are now investing in business opportunities for their long term benefit.

And a call has been made for more women in those regions to follow suit after women of Lower Ok Tedi through their Nima Ara Women's Association handed over two new buses to help transport workers at Ok Tedi's dredging project at Bige.

The buses, one a 15-seater and the other a 25-seater, were handed over to Lower Ok Tedi Investment Limited (LOTIC) on May 9 in a small but significant ceremony.

Nima Ara is a women's association within the community mine continuation agreement (CMCA) region.

 LOTIC is a landowner company which has been engaged by OTML to provide logistical support to its Bige operation.

Bige is one of Ok Tedi Mining Limited's operating bases where the dredging project is located.

Ok Tedi Fly River Development Program (OTFRDP) executive manager for support services Ben Kamaya said this was the first such arrangement women of mine-impacted regions have embarked on.

He said OTFRDP was committed to supporting women and children of the mine-impacted communities by helping provide various income-earning opportunities for them.

"I want to say thank you to LOTIC and OTML for giving the women this opportunity," he said.

"This is the first for all the eight associations within the CMCA to be involved as far as business opportunities are concerned.

"Nima Ara is actually setting the pace by going into an arrangement like this and this demonstrates the confidence you have in LOTIC and to invest your resources into.

"I believe these two investments are good and will bring good returns to support women within the association.

"I would like to challenge the association to make sure that the earnings you receive from these investments are spent on programs that will benefit women."

OTML executive manager for Kiunga and Bige operations, Derrick Kelly said the new buses would now provide some relief to the logistical needs of Bige and would provide safe travel for workers to and from work.

The buses were bought from funds allocated under the 10% CMCA Women and Children's Fund earmarked for women in the Wai Tri Trust.

In 2007 the mine-impacted communities together with OTML agreed that 10% of the K1.1 billion earmarked under the CMCA would be set aside every year to support women and children.

Ok Tedi eases school’s housing problem

Caption: The new house built for Ningerum Primary school

 

The government-owned Ningerum Primary School has received another facility at its campus – thanks to Ok Tedi Mining Limited.

This time it is a modern high-set teacher's house, built at a cost of K200, 000.

The school, located at Ningerum station on the Tabubil-Kiunga highway, services the township and surrounding villages. 

And in an added bonus to the local communities, the contract for building the house had been awarded to their own landowner company, Hore Binkia.

Head teacher Henry Gugu was grateful to OTML for recognising and addressing the school's need for more teachers' houses.

"The only houses we have are three institutional houses that are in the school," he said.

"The rest are government houses.

"And we rely heavily on the district administration for houses."

OTML community support executive manager Leonard Lagisa who handed over the house to the school said the new house signified OTML's continued commitment to the affected communities in the Highway region and the improvement of important services in education and health.

He said a lot of money had been generated from the Ok Tedi mine but there was still no tangible development taking place in the province.

He said OTML could assist in a little way but it was the responsibility of all stakeholders including communities to work together for the improvement of service delivery.

OTML would want to see more infrastructure development taking place in the province.

Funding for the three-bedroom high timber house came from OTML's mine waste tailings project  (MWTP) which was initiated in 2006 after OTML and Tabubil-Kiunga highway villagers agreed for a pyrite concentrate pipeline to be built from the Ok Tedi mill facilities along the road to Bige where special pits are located under the water bed to contain the waste.

OTML has allocated K2.1 million for community infrastructure projects under the MWTP.

 So far six teachers' houses and two aid posts have already been built in various villages while another two double classrooms, a library and two teachers' houses are under construction.

APEC combats corruption with new code of ethics

Issued by the APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group

Big Sky, Montana, 22 May 2011 – APEC has adopted a first-ever code of ethics for the region's medical devices industry.

The principles will improve the quality of patient care, encourage innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs that produce medical devices.

The Kuala Lumpur (KL) Principles for Medical Device Sector Codes of Business Ethics were endorsed by APEC SME Ministers at their 2011 Ministerial Meeting, in Big Sky, Montana.

"Once implemented, the KL Principles will help APEC member economies develop codes of ethics for their respective medical devices sectors," said Michael Camuñez, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance.

"The codes will help eliminate corruption, one of the most insidious trade barriers facing SMEs throughout the APEC region," he added.

APEC member economies developed the principles in response to last year's call by APEC's SME Ministers to assist members in improving the often fragmented and complex business ethics rules and practices that exist across the region.

"Ethical practices ensure health care decisions are based on the best interests of patients and promote patient access to life-saving medical technologies," Camuñez said.

"This is done by providing companies with clear parameters to guide conduct, as detailed in the five basic tenets of the KL Principles: integrity, independence, appropriateness, transparency and advancement."

Medical devices industry representatives note that unethical behaviour substantially increases the costs of doing business through the payment of penalties. Corruption lowers sales growth and productivity, inhibits the ability to enter new markets, and constricts access to capital. The World Bank estimates that corruption costs the world's private sector about US $1 trillion dollars annually.

Saving money by tackling corruption also boosts innovation by freeing up resources for research and development investments. Ultimately, both SMEs and patients benefit from better-designed and better-built medical devices.

 "Innovation in this sector is not an accident. Investment in research and development represents 12 percent of the sector's revenue—four times the manufacturer average," Camuñez said. "With more resources freed up to invest in R&D and innovation, the sector will benefit from even greater growth."

The resulting growth of SMEs is essential to APEC economies, where SMEs account for over 90 percent of all businesses and employ as much as 60 percent of the region's workforce.

"The code of ethics is expected serve as a model for other industries," said Camuñez.

The APEC SME Working Group agreed to develop principles for the region's construction and bio-pharmaceutical sectors.

The APEC SME Ministerial is held annually by the APEC host economy to encourage the development of small and medium enterprises and to build their capacity to engage in international trade.

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For more information, contact:  Augustine Kwan +65 9831 0717 at ak@apec.org or Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org

Details about APEC meetings, events, projects and publications can be found at www.apec.org or www.apec2011.gov. You can also follow APEC on Twitter and join us on Facebook.