State’s lawyer keeps plans ‘confidential’

By SAMUEL RAITANO

LAWYERS representing the state will not disclose how the attorney-general will serve a copy of the amended Supreme Court reference by the East Sepik provincial government to Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, The National reports.
Lawyer Greg Shepard, of Young and Williams Lawyers, is representing Attorney-General Dr Allan Marat.
Shepard said disclosure of such information, though in this case was of public interest, would touch on lawyer-client confidentiality.
When asked what would happen if nobody was allowed to visit Sir Michael, he said the court would direct them on that matter.
Marat yesterday said he and his lawyers would ensure Monday's Supreme Court directions to serve court documents on East Sepik regional MP Sir Michael and four other interveners would be executed. 
"It was a Supreme Court direction and it will be done between now and next Tuesday," Marat said.
He said that it would be done as soon as the sealed court directions were received by his lawyers.
The Supreme Court had on Monday ruled that the deadline for the service of documents to concerned parties should be by the end of business on Friday.
The court had ordered that the attorney-general served the documents on allthose who were interested to join. On Monday, seven interested parties were named. The court ruled that any other party interested to join should do so by tomorrow.
Sir Michael, who is sick and under medical care in a hospital in Singapore, would have to be served the reference.
Sir Michael is East Sepik regional MP. It was his post that was allegedly stripped triggering the special reference.
Sources at the attorney-general's office said certain personnel could be sent to Singapore today to serve the reference.
It was understood that even if Sir Michael was not well to study the reference, he would have to appoint a lawyer on his behalf to do it for him, and evidence should be provided of that.
Marat said lawyers would fly to Singapore if that was what it took to serve the court documents

Corrupt 7 jailed in Southern Highlands

SEVEN people, including a woman, who held leadership positions in the provincial and local level governments in Southern Highlands, have been jailed for misusing public funds totalling more than K300,000, The National reports.
Three others, including former sports minister and Nipa-Kutubu MP Philemon Embel, are either awaiting sentences or still being investigated for misusing more or the same amount of money.
National Anti-Corruption Alliance chairman and Police Commissioner Tony Wagambie said yesterday that the seven were jailed as a result of successful investigations carried out by the alliance and police.
"So far, for Southern Highlands, there have been seven convictions, one acquittal, and two cases pending National Court decisions," Wagambie said.
He said among those convicted was former Ialibu district administrator Francis Ipuke, who was jailed for four years for misappropriating K212,000 belonging to the Ialibu Urban LG.
Wagambie said Rachel Okpio, president of the SHP Women's Council, was jailed for four years for misappropriating K50,000 belonging to the council.
Wagambie said other people who were convicted were:

• Councillor Andrew Mambea, president of the Kuare LLG, Kagua, who was sentenced to five years jail for misappropriating K8,700 being allowances for Village Court officials;
• Pisa Solo, LLG clerk for Lai, who was sentenced to three years for misappropriating K20,000 LLG grants;
• Andrew Epei, Ialibu town council manager, who was sentenced to four years for misappropriating K212,000, belonging to the Ialibu Urban LG; and
• Andrew Mambea, council president Kuare LLG, Kagua, who was sentenced to four years jail for misappropriating K10,000.
  

Wagambie said the presiding judge had yet to make a ruling on the case of Francis Yoke, the provincial education adviser, who was found guilty of misappropriating K42,000 school fee subsidy.
He said Yoke was remanded at the Bomana prison.
He said bail had been extended to Daniel Undialu, district treasurer for Koroba-Lake Kopiago, who was alleged to have misappropriated district treasury funds totalling K94,000.
He said Embel was accused of misappropriating K165,000 of a church grant and was committed to trial but had appealed through a judicial review which was pending before the courts.
Wagambie said "massive fraud" complaints against the Department of National Planning would be investigated.
"NACA, in a bid to stop corruption, will continue to inves­tigate and bring to justice those who have corruptly taken and used money belonging to the people of PNG," he said.
He expressed satisfaction with the work of NACA and said more was needed to be done in the fight against corruption.
He said the organisation had already undertaken a number of other investigations into the Southern Highlands, Gulf, and East Sepik provinces as well as the Nimamar LLG in Lihir, New Ireland.
He said NACA was made up of 10 government organisations including police, Ombudsman Commission and the departments of provincial affairs, treasury and personnel management, offices of the auditor-general, solicitor-general, public prosecutor, Internal Revenue Commission and PNG Customs.

InterOil records US$23.5m net profit for Q2

INTEROIL Corp last Friday posted a consolidated net profit of US$23.5 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2011, The National reports.
This compares with a net profit of US$7.8 million for the same period last year, an improvement of US$15.7 million.
The operating segments of corporate, midstream refining and downstream collectively returned a net profit for the quarter of US$34.5 million.
The development segments of upstream and midstream liquefaction yielded a net loss of US$11 million.
This movement was mainly due to higher foreign exchange gains realised on the strengthening of the kina against the US dollar from 0.3895 at the start of the second quarter of this year and ending the quarter at 0.4350, the gains realised on shares acquired as an investment interest in Flex LNG.
InterOil's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the quarter was a gain of US$39 million, compared with a gain of US$14.9 million for the same period last year, an increase of US$24.1 million.
Total revenue increased by US$78.5 million from US$225.3 million last year to US$303.8 million for the second quarter this year.
In the quarter, InterOil and Pacific LNG Ope­rations Ltd entered into framework agreements with Samsung Heavy Industries and Flex LNG Ltd, conditional upon a final investment decision relating to the construction and operation of a 1.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) floating natural gas liquefaction processing vessel.
The project was intended to be integrated with and augment proposed infrastructure to liquefy natural gas from the onshore Elk and Antelope fields in the Gulf province.
The onshore liquefaction facility was being pursued with Energy World Corp. and Mitsui and Co Ltd.
Subsequent to the quarter end, InterOil announced on Aug 2 the signing of a heads of agreement with Noble Clean Fuels Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Noble Group Ltd, which was to form the basis for negotiation of a binding, definitive agreement for the supply to Noble of 1.0mtpa of LNG from InterOil's proposed Gulf LNG project in Papua New Guinea.
InterOil chief executive officer Phil Mulacek said: "In addition to continuing to pre-invest in the Gulf LNG project in advance of FID, InterOil achieved another milestone in advancing our development project with the recent execution of a HOA with Noble Group.
"Noble has a proven track record of providing long-term fuel supply to major utilities across Japan, South Korea and China and is a good fit with InterOil's strategy of expanding LNG markets," he said.
He said the addition of Sir Rabbie Namaliu, former Prime Minister and former Petroleum and Energy minister to InterOil's PNG advisory board should assist InterOil in discussions with government departments in developing the Gulf LNG Project.
"Furthermore, we have advanced our understanding of the structure of the Triceratops/Bwata structure, having recently completed the acquisition of three of the four additional seismic lines over the field, and are now preparing to drill the Triceratops 2 well," he said.

Accident victim wants review of road rules

By PISAI GUMAR

AN injured passenger in a recent fatal road accident at Sasiang Farm, along the Markham plains in Morobe, has called for stringent measures to be esta­blished for trucking companies including the issuing of driving licences, The National reports.
Mt Hagen Secondary School deputy principal James Pini (pictured) made the call yesterday from his hospital bed at the Lae International Hospital.
Pini had sustained two broken bones on his right hand while his wife, Naomi, received injuries to her head.
Others admitted at the Angau Memorial Hospital included George Ning, Peter Philip, Joshua Kopugl and Jonny Boy from Moge-Namb in Hagen Central with body and head injuries.
Pini wanted the relevant authorities to seriously review:
.The operating regulations of trucking companies;
.Issuing of driving licences;
.Penalties for careless dri­ving;
.Establishment of weighing stations; and
.Awarding of road contracts and maintenance.
Among the fatal accidents along the Markham plains since last year was the collision of two Coaster buses at Ragiampun which resulted in 40 deaths in January and another involving evangelist Joseph Kingal and his family at Zumim Bridge last November.
Two Fridays ago, a Landcruiser utility belonging to Traisa Transport ran into the back of a semi-trailer belonging to Rookes Marine resulting in three deaths.
Last Thursday, a Coaster bus collided with a KK & Sons semi-trailer resulting in five deaths.
Early last Saturday morning, a Mazda Dyna ploughed into the same semi-trailer which was left on the roadside after Thursday's accident resulting in eight more deaths.
Altogether, 57 deaths were recorded since last year while those who sustained injuries in other crashes went unreported.
Pini also pointed out two other factors resulting in the accidents on the highway – bad road conditions and careless driving.
"Who will be responsible for the expense of the deaths and compensations, hospital surgery and treatment fees for injured persons including living costs for the families of those that died?
"Is it the government or trucking company, PMV and vehicle owners involved?" Pini said.
"The government needs to think critically and put in place measures to guide, control and minimise such road accidents."
Meanwhile, Lae area base medical store (LABMS) mana­ger Polume Jonathan said LOHA Customs and Forwarding, LD Logistics and MDL were the three companies engaged in medical supplies procurement.
"I have no knowledge of the arrangement for the Mazda Dyna involved in the accident, reportedly returning from Madang after procurement of medical supplies," Jonathan said.
The truck is owned by JED Logistics Company, engaged by the Health Department in Port Moresby for procurement of medical supplies.
They were recently established in Lae but cargo forwarding and consignments were done in NCD while, in Lae, they did deliveries only to required destinations.
However, having no proper warehouse, they were allowed to use the LABMS yard but have no proper vehicles, he said.

Youth dies in election clash

A MAN has died following a clash between two groups supporting rival candidates during the Kundiawa-Gembogl by-election in Chimbu, The National reports.
A compensation de­mand of K100,000 and 52 pigs was imposed on the two candidates by re­la­tives of Peter Bob, 18, of Gembogl.
Relatives of the de­ceased presented the compensation demands to the two candidates last week. Bob had died of head injuries.
Police said immediately after the polling in one of the stations in Gembogl, supporters of the two rival candidates had a fight.
The deceased sustained serious head injuries as a result and was rushed to the Kundiawa General Hos­pital where he died after a few days.
Chimbu provincial po­lice commander acting Supt John Kale confirmed the incident and said police mediated with the tribes and settled for the compensation.
He said the body of the deceased was taken to his Siago village on the foot of Mt Wilhelm for burial last Thursday.
Kale has appealed to candidates and their supporters to maintain peace during the counting.
"It is important that people respect each other and live peacefully, because election comes and goes and the people must live peacefully and lead normal lives," Kale said.
Last Saturday evening, police dispersed sup­por­ters of the two candidates as they were trying to argue and fight among themselves.

Sepik's challenge on government enters courtroom

By SAMUEL RAITANO 

THE East Sepik pro­vincial government's Su­preme Court special reference challenging the constitutionality of the O'Neill-Namah government entered the legal scene yesterday, putting to test the jurisdictional responsibilities of the chief justice and the at­torney-general in as­sis­ting the court, The National reports.
The main drama was when points were raised between first intervener Attorney-General Dr Al­lan Marat's counsel and Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia as to who should order the serving of the amended Supreme Court reference to the parties named.
This was because the attorney-general and the court shared the same discretion to serve the reference documents to the concerned parties, according to a provision of the Supreme Court rule used to pursue the matter.
In the melee, the referrer's lawyer, Ian Molloy, announced that the "amended" special refe­rence was filed and served early yesterday morning in court and to the defendants before the 9.30am hearing.
The Supreme Court reference was filed on Aug 5 and an amended version was filed yesterday.
The court was told that the amended special re­ference superseded the pre­vious special refe­rence.
Counsel Manuel Vari­timos, for the attorney-general, denied recei­ving any written docu­ment on the amendment.
The court battle pro­mised to gain momentum as lawyers Virgil Narokobi and Kelly Naru for the Ombudsman Commission and the clerk of parliament respectively announced their intentions to join the proceeding as inter­vening parties.
Narokobi said the Ombudsman Commission was ready to join in the matter and would file their application to do so on the court's direction.
He said the reference was to do with the interpretation and application of constitutional laws which his client was interested in.
Naru said he would make two separate applications to intervene.
One was for the clerk of the parliament in person and the other for the national parliament.
The court raised concern as to whether the jurisdiction in representing the parliament in court lay with the clerk or the speaker.
The attorney-general, in his draft orders, had named seven parties as the ones interested in the matter and who should be personally served with the reference documents.
The parties are Grand Chief Sir Michael So­mare, former acting prime minister Sam Abal, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah, Parliament Speaker Jeffery Nape, the Ombudsman Commission and the national parliament.
Varitimos also sought the court's approval to personally serve Sir Michael the reference information because "there was no evidence whatsoever proving that Sir Michael was not able to receive it in person".
This point was received with murmurs from the court audience, prompting Sir Salamo to highlight that Sir Mi­chael was under health care in Singapore.
The court highlighted that interested parties were not restricted to the seven and directed that any other parties wanting to join in had to make their applications by Thursday.
This was due to the state's argument that it did not want to have any other party filing similar references on the same matter later.
The court directed the attorney-general to serve the sealed documents personally to the parties concerned before next Tuesday for further directions

Kundiawa-Gembogl by-election update

By ZACHERY PER

ONE of two female contenders running in the Kundiawa-Gembogl by-election was eliminated yesterday, The National reports.
Independent candidate Christina Num Nulai, who polled 13 primary votes, was eliminated and her second preferences were distributed among 42 other candidates.
The other female candidate, Susan Dua Dingi, is still in the race with 93 first preference votes.
William Gumane, who picked 13 votes in the first count, was also elimina­ted.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's People's National Congress candidate Peter Waieng maintained a comfortable lead yesterday with 6, 583 votes a difference of 1,629 votes with nearest rival and former agriculture minister Mathew Siune on 4,957 votes.
Running third was Constitutional Democratic Party candidate Tobias Kulang on 4,034 votes. In fourth place was former Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Wagi Merimba with 3,726 votes.
People's Party candidate Paul Gende is in fifth place with 3,571 votes. A total of 51,643 ballots were distributed among the candidates after the eliminations yesterday.
The absolute majority was set at 25,822 and the eliminations will continue today.
Chimbu provincial elections manager Steven Gore Kaupa applauded the excellent efforts of counting officials under the guidance of returning officer James Piapia and staff from the PNG Electoral Commission.
He commended them for the suc­cessful completion of first reference counts and urged them to continue the good work in the second and third prefe­rence counts.
In a written message to the Kundiawa Lutheran Day counting centre, Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen commended the counting officials and their coordinators for the excellent execution of the counting progress, especially in completing the first counts.
Trawen also praised party officials and members of the police mobile squad 07 from Mt Hagen and squad 08 from Kerowagi for providing security during the polling and counting