Abal confident of advice by AG

ACTING Prime Minister Sam Abal is confident of the advice provided to the government by Attorney-General and Justice Minister Sir Arnold Amet and his department, The National reports.

He said the advice given by Sir Arnold "is based on his experience as a former top lawyer and chief justice and cheap politics should not be used to degrade his integrity".

Abal was responding to a call by the opposition for Sir Arnold to be sacked for poorly advising the government on major issues of contention.

Opposition leader Belden Namah claimed "so many blunders are costing taxpayers millions of kina on legal advice provided to the government and parliament".

He said such advice had resulted in the government and speaker "jointly destroying the independence of parliament".

But Abal said Westminster parliamentary democracy "allows for freedom of expression and opinion and, of course, it caters for the opposition and its role in bringing issues and opinions before government".

While he had no issue with that, Abal said: "What I take issue with is their ability to allow their sly and cheap gutter political motives to engage, yet again, on a personality hunt.

"Sir Arnold is no doubt a man of integrity and public standing.

"He has been PNG's outstanding lawyer and has risen in much of his public life to the post of chief justice of PNG.

"He is a renowned and eminent jurist and scholar of the Commonwealth prior to him becoming a member of parliament.

"The people of Madang recognised this fully and gave him the mandate to serve them as servant leader in parliament.

" With full cognisance of his outstanding professional background and personal achievements, and contributions to legal policy development towards the progress of this nation, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, as prime minister, had full and total confidence in him and appointed him as attorney-general and justice minister in his cabinet.

"He is one of the PNG's proud knights in shining armour, someone we all must show goodwill and respect to.

"Many of us aspire to be like him. Not many of us can be like him.

"There is no reason for such a cheap, gutter and childish call by the opposition for Sir Arnold to resign from cabinet simply on narrow assertion that his advice to cabinet should all the time be true and correct in law," Abal said.

 

MP asks tribunal for time to travel

By SAMUEL RAITANO

 

THE Leadership Tribunal will decide today whether to allow suspended Angoram MP Arthur Somare the time he needs to obtain the information from his electorate required for the hearing, The National reports.

On Monday, Somare's lawyer Kerenga Kua said his client had a total of 105 allegations made against him.

He said the Ombudsman Commission had also claimed that Somare had facilitated 57 cheques to the recipients in Angoram.

He said the issuing and use of those cheques were matters to be raised at the tribunal.

But the time  they were  requesting was what they needed  to travel to East Sepik and talk to the  reci­pients.

Kua said that Angoram was a vast electorate with the recipients of the cheques scattered along the Sepik River and its numerous tributaries.

This is why they needed more time to travel there and obtain the needed information.

On Monday, the public prosecutor's office had submitted the necessary documents needed by the tribunal to start the hearing.

 Initially on Monday, both parties had asked the tribunal for a month's adjournment on the grounds that both parties needed time to file the necessary documents for thee hearing.

But on Monday afternoon, after a brief adjournment, the public pro­secutor's lawyer, Katua Umpake, told the tribunal that he had the ne­cessary documents to start the hearing.

The documents were the statement of reasons from the Ombudsman Commission and the statement of charges from the public prosecutor.

This triggered the Organic Law provision which required that So­mare be suspended immediately.

The three-man tribunal will comprise chairman Justice Salatiel Lenalia, and  magistrates Orim Karapo and Noreen Kanasa.

The ruling  today will determine if Somare will be allowed time to visit and talk to the recipients in his electorate.

Abal: Pruaitch still in

Supreme Court causing confusion, says minister

 

FINANCE and Treasury Minister Patrick Pruaitch yesterday accused the Supreme Court of abusing its judicial powers and creating confusion and uncertainty in PNG laws, The National reports.

Pruaitch made his accusation in regards to last Friday’s Supreme Court decision which had been portrayed in the media as an automatic suspension for him from office.

In a three-page letter yesterday to Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal, Pruaitch said legal opinions he had sought advice that he was still minister and that Friday’s decision was a separate matter between Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and the Ombudsman Commission.

“The Supreme Court was not asked to deal with the issue of suspension from office.

“The fact that it proceeded to consider the issue of suspension at its own choosing is a matter of grave concern bordering on abuse of judicial powers and in contravention of the courts’ rules and principles of precedents and finality in decision-making,” he said in his letter.

Abal affirmed Pruaitch as his minister last night.

Abal said: “He is still a minister in cabinet.

“He remains a minister until officers of the court have served legally binding decisions of the court on him.

“We will respect court decisions but he is a leader and must be respected too.”

Pruaitch told Abal that the parties before the Supreme Court case were Sir Michael and the Ombudsman Commission, thus, any decision arising out of that case “can only bind those parties and not me”.

“The implications of the Supreme Court opi­nion on the issue of suspension is to add further confusion and uncertainty in our laws.

“The Supreme Court presided by a panel headed by Justice Kirriwom suspended me on the interpretation that a leader is automatically suspended when the public prosecutor refers the leader to the chief justice.

“The second Supreme Court headed by Justice Sakora reversed and discharge that decision and made orders reinstating me as leader and minister.”

“The Supreme Court panel headed by Justice Sakora specifically made orders reinstating me as leader and minister.

“This court order is binding for all intents and purposes. Since the Supreme Court order of March 31,  no other Supreme Court order has been expressly made setting aside the March 31 Supreme Court order.

“Any action in contravention of the attached Supreme Court order would amount to contempt of the Supreme Court order.”

Last Friday’s Supreme Court decision did make direct references to the Pruaitch case (No.2)  claiming it “does not correctly represent the law” and that it “runs against the spirit and intent of section 271 (6) of the Constitution and the whole scheme of making leaders accountable for the sake of good leadership, good administration and good governance”.

Elsewhere, the decision stated: “For avoidance of doubt, we reiterate that suspension is triggered or takes effect from the moment a decision is made to refer a leader to a leadership tribunal by the public prosecutor.”

Yasause explains disappearing act

By SAMUEL RAITANO

 

THE case of the “disappearance” of murder suspect Theo Yasause was solved yesterday – by the good doctor himself, The National reports.

Yasause phoned The National newsroom from his Boroko police cell to say he had been there all the time; since April after all his application for bail was refused by the district, national and supreme courts.

There was confusion in court on Monday when neither the prison officers nor police could tell Justice Nicholas Kirriwom where Yasause was after he had failed to appear in court.

But, when he did turn up yesterday, the former director of the Office of Climate Change told Kirriwom, through his lawyer Canute Nidue, that they were not aware of a hearing the previous day.

Kirriwom did not question him further.

Nidue also apologised for not notifying the court that he would be representing Yasause in place of Copland Raurela.

Bomana jail commander Michael Mondia said Yasause had been remanded at Bomana in April after being charged with the wilful murder of former rugby league star Aquila Emil.

He said after initial court appearances, Yasause was removed from prison and kept at the Boroko police station.

Mondia said last week, he wrote a letter NCD metropolitan commander Supt Joseph Tondop to return him to Bomana but did not receive a reply.

The District and National courts had recommended that Yasause be remanded at Bomana while his case was pending in court.

Yesterday, Public Prosecutor Marriane Zurenuoc asked the court for a month’s adjournment to allow both parties to file pre-trial statements.

The court agreed to that and issued a fresh warrant for Yasause to be further remanded in custody.

Police, meanwhile, had blamed the public prosecutor’s office for failing to get a warrant from the National Court to have Yasause sent to Bomana after his court case two weeks ago.

Police said Yasause was at the Boroko police station all this time.

Zurenuoc, on Monday, told the court that they could not locate Yasause when asked by Kirriwom why he was not present for his hearing.

Zurenuoc also told Kirriwom that Yasause could not be located at the Boroko police cell on Monday.

 

Namah slams AG for giving poor advice

OPPOSITION leader Bel­den Namah says the country needs a new prime mi­nister and accuses Attorney-General Sir Arnold Amet of giving misleading advice on important constitutional matters, including the health status of the Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, The National reports.

Namah, with the support of Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat, Sir Puka Temu and Jamie Maxtone-Graham, said at a media conference that  the country lacked leadership and parliament must be recalled to appoint a new prime minister or dissolved the position to allow for fresh elections.

He said Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal was illegally occupying the position and called on the government to invoke section 142 (5) (c) of the Constitution to vote in a new prime minister.

Namah raised concern over legal advice given to the National Executive Council and parliament on important issues affecting PNG, including constitutional matters.

He raised the concern following the decision by a three-judge bench Supreme Court last Friday which cited Sir Michael for preventing a proper legal process from taking its course.

“The Supreme Court decision clearly indicates that some leaders can go to the extent of abusing the process to deliberately delay justice to protect personal interests,” he said.

Namah said the judiciary and the courts should not tolerate such tactics, especially cases involving parliamentarians “who are the lawmakers”.

“Politicians and people with legal background who are found to be abusing processes should be dealt with appropriately,” he said.

Namah was critical of the legal advice provided by the state lawyers.

“With Sir Arnold, a former chief justice, as the government’s chief legal adviser, it is hard to understand why there have been so many blunders,” he said

“It is such blunders that are costing the taxpayers millions of kina for legal advice provided to the government and even parliament.”

He said some high profiled cases included:

*Government ignoring fiscal processes in fiscal agreements over landow­ner benefits and local company content for the LNG project;

*Illegal re-election of Sir Paulias Matane as go­vernor-general;

*Continuous failure by government to meet the required 63-day (nine-week) parliament sittings;

*Sir Michael’s efforts in preventing the Ombudsman Commission from investigating him on official misconduct charges;

*Public Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare’s endless court attempts to stop the OC dealing with him for alleged misconduct charges;

*The failure by the government to appoint two medical doctors to report back in 28 days the condition of the prime minister; and,

*Failure by Abal to immediately appoint two new ministers after the suspension of Arthur Somare and Patrick Pruaitch.

“The Constitution, laws and independence of the judiciary are essential for democracy to survive,

This government and parliament Speaker have jointly destroyed the independence of parliament.”

 

Mitchell: K125m bills parked with Nasfund

By ALISON ANIS

 

NATIONAL Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) chief executive officer Rod Mitchell yesterday confirmed the controversial K125 million so­vereign community infrastructure treasury bills (SCITB) have been parked with Nasfund, The National reports.

“Nasfund is holding onto 125 million treasury notes issued under the Treasury Bill Act (2002). The notes won’t be released until the state clears its side,” Mitchell said.

He said that Nasfund had followed legal procedures but the state had not and must find a way correct that.

He said this following media reports yesterday where Minister for Communication Patrick Tammur announced that the K125 million was with Nasfund.

Mitchell argued that the information that came out in the media, including findings from the study conducted by National Research Institute which categorised the treasury bills as illegal, were incorrect.

In its report released last month, the NRI said the deal was done without the approval of parliament as required by the PNG Constitution sections 13 and 14, was not in line with the Public Finance Management Act and Bank of PNG Act, which limits government borrowing.

“The Public Management Act and Finance Act do not apply to treasury bills. This is different and as far as I know Nasfund has gone through legal process and I have all the legal documents with me to prove that,” Mitchell said.

 “The purchase of 125 million treasury notes was guaranteed by the state.

“Nasfund has invested based on that fact and plays no part in how the funds are to be used and for what purpose since the bill was issued for and on behalf of the state.”

In a press statement, the Nasfund board has sworn to no secrecy when arguing and justifying the legitimacy of the deal.

Treasury bills, the board argued, was issued under the Treasury Bill Act by signature and authority of the Treasurer and Minister for Finance Patrick Pruaitch, co-signed by the Minister for National Planning and Development Paul Tiensten with the sponsorship of Tammur.

The board, which includes John Jeffery, Reginald McAlister, Dr John Nonggorr, Lady Wilhemina Siaguru, Hulala Tokome, Graham Ainui and Murray Woo, said the superannuation fund’s contribution in the treasury bill “will yield 7.05 % if rolled annually”.

“All indications from the state are that the treasury note will be rolled over through the Central Bank which is normal for such instruments.

“This has been confirmed in recent NEC deliberations,” the statement read.

The board and Mitchell assured contributors that all was okay and that reports in the media were incorrect and lacked accuracy.

Somare suspended

Angoram MP and Public Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare (right) was yesterday suspended from office by a leadership tribunal hearing allegations of official misconduct against him, The National reports.

 The three-member tribunal is chaired by Justice Salatiel Lenalia. Somare's suspension was in accordance with section 27(2) of the Organic Law on Duties and Responsibilities of Leadership.

 It also consolidated the provision of section 28 of the Organic Law that a leader, once referred to a tribunal, is automatically suspended from office. The tribunal will, on Thursday, rule on applications for an adjournment until Aug 16 to give both parties time to prepare themselves. – Nationalpic by AURI EVA