Somare tribunal adjourned

By JULIA DAIA BORE

THE Leadership Tribunal on Arthur Somare has been adjourned indefinitely pending the outcome of a judicial review hearing to begin on Monday, The National reports.
Somare had asked the tribunal to review its earlier decision in which it rejected his application to have his case dismissed. He had based his application on the fact that the reference from the public prosecutor's office to the Leadership Tribunal was to have been signed by the acting public prosecutor Camillus Sambua and not by any other person. It was instead signed by state prosecutor Kathwa Umpake.
The tribunal ruled last month that Umpake had jurisdiction to sign the reference which contained 11 allegations against Somare and which the tribunal had accepted on July 4.
Somare who was not satisfied asked the tribunal to review that decision.
Justice Les Gavara-Nanu granted this and said the judicial review would be heard in the National Court.

State gives Falcon jet to Air Niugini

By FRANK SENGE KOLMA

THE government's K120 million Falcon jet was on Wednesday given away to Air Niugini to use, or sell, The National reports.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill announced the cabinet decision on Wednesday in the company of Public Enterprises Minister Sir Mekere Morauta and Air Niugini chief executive officer Wasantha Kumarasiri.
O'Neill has been quite concerned, according to his minders, that the aircraft's continued use by government ministers was putting the lie to his earlier announcement to sell the executive aircraft. So he made a joint submission  with Sir Mekere to cabinet to transfer its ownership to Air Niugini.
Cabinet approved the move yesterday.
"This is not a cosmetic change," O'Neill said.
"We are transferring ownership to Air Niugini and Air Niugini can dispose of it on the market or do charter business with it."
A method of payment to the government by Air Niugini was yet to be determined, he said.
O'Neill said Air Niugini was already owed some K40 million by the government for its management, crew, fuel and food.
He said should the aircraft be sold, Air Niugini would take what it was owed and the balance  be given to government to be used in health and education.
The government is of course free to charter the Falcon Jet if it so wishes – at a rate of US$10,000 per hour (about K24,000).
This might be the first of a number of government assets to be put up for sale, including Telikom and PNG Power, reading from comments made by Sir Mekere yesterday.
"These utilities are vital to support social and economic development, he said.
"We cannot ignore the state they are in any longer.
"In the short time the O'Neill-Namah government has, I am determined to find solutions and effect change."
Sir Mekere was instrumental in setting up the Independent Public Business Corporation during his tenure as prime minister in 1999 to oversee the privatisation and corporatisation of non-profitable state-owned enterprises.
He said the Somare government had "weakened the role of IPBC from being a house of rehabilitation to a warehouse storing junk".
It would appear he is all for moving back to his original goal for the IPBC, adding he had taken a long hard look and knew what had been going on and what needed to be done.

Resource transfer not government policy, says PM

TRANSFERING ownership of mineral and hydrocarbon wealth from the government to landowners is not a government policy yet, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said on Wednesday, The National reports.
O'Neill made the comment to allay fears among industry parti­cipants following statements from two ministers that the new administration would change the fiscal regime governing the mining and petroleum sector.
The statements by Mining Mi­nister Byron Chan and Planning Minister Sam Basil had jittered stocks of PNG mining companies and elicited strong protests from the industry.
O'Neill said yesterday: "This is not yet government policy. Cabinet and parliament are yet to discuss the matter."
The prime minister assured stakeholders that they would be consulted fully before any policy or law was considered.
This was the second time in as many days the prime minister has had to correct the impetuous words and actions of his new ministers.
On Tuesday, he said cabinet had not made any decision to withdraw or suspend the powers of any provincial governments inclu­ding East Sepik and Morobe.
The two second-tier governments had gone to court on the basis of "speculations" based on an internal memo from Minister for Finance and Treasury Don Polye.
The mineral and hydrocarbon ownership issue was sensitive and one industry watcher said any change by the current regime "will be the single biggest mistake" and would cripple the economy.
The Chamber of Mines and Petroleum was understood to have written to O'Neill ex­pressing the concerns of its members.
The current push was to change section 5 of the Mining Act and section 6 of the Oil and Gas Act to transfer ownership of mineral and hydrocarbon wealth from the state to landowning groups.

Prime Minister cracks the whip

By FRANK SENGE KOLMA   

THE managing director of the Independence Public Business Corporation (IPBC) Glen Blake has been sacked and a new board appointed, The National reports.
Blake was on Wednesday replaced by Thomas Abe and the new IPBC board is headed by Dr Thomas Webster.
These were the decisions of cabinet announced by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill on Wednesday.
The move on the IPBC is so severe that it promises a complete shake-up of the present state of affairs including the welfare and operations of the multi-billion-kina state-owned enterprises starting with PNG Power and Telikom, the possible dismantling of the Department of Public Enterprises, and the reversal of the corporation's focus and role of the past 10 years.
Flanked by Public Enterprises Minister Sir Mekere Morauta, Fisheries Minister Job Pomat and Air Niugini chief executive officer Wasantha Kumarasiri, the prime minister said the decisions had been made to correct past abuses and inconsistencies.
Sir Mekere said cabinet had terminated Blake for misconduct in office.
He accused Blake of paying himself millions of kina a year illegally on an unapproved contract and without the approval of the Salaries and Conditions Mo­nitoring Committee (SCMC).
Blake was also cited for inves­ting K31 million illegally in failed American investment house, Lehman Brothers.
Blake was said to be on sick leave in Australia but spoke through a friend to answer the charges yesterday, saying that his contract had the approval of the IPBC board, SCMC and the state solicitor before it was signed by the governor-general.
He said the K31 million investment had been done on the advice of BSP Capital in an investment house which, before it collapsed in 2008, was rated double "A", the best rating offered corporations.
Sir Mekere said Lehman Bro­thers had become insolvent and all the money was lost.
He said legal advice had been sought to recover money paid from Blake and also the money invested by him.
"All the investment was made without prior approval of the IPBC board.
"I find it difficult to believe that former minister Arthur Somare was not aware of this illegal investment," Sir Mekere said.
The auditor-general had ob­served that the investment was made without assessment of risk last year but the report was not tabled by Somare, he said.
Sir Mekere said: "The IPBC under Somare and Blake ope­rated under a thick veil of secrecy. The amendments to the IPBC Act that Somare cham­pioned stripped IPBC of transparency and accountability.
"It is my job to restore open honest governance to the operations of IPBC.
"Somare keeps telling the nation that all state-owned enterprises are performing fabulously as a result of his policies and actions. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"All are grossly under-capitalised. Some are bumbling along. Others are dead, but refusing to fall down.
"Somare mutated IPBC into an octopus with tentacles everywhere. This has weakened the central role of IPBC from being a house of rehabilitation to a warehouse storing junk.
"He has turned IPBC into a petroleum house in competition with ExxonMobil, Oil Search and Petromin."
Correcting the alleged mis­takes and putting the house in order would be the first big task of the new board, Sir Mekere said.
The new board headed by Webster included Felecia Dobunaba, Peter Aitsi, Aho Baliki and two members to represent the Insti­tute of Directors and the PNG Chamber of Commerce and ex-officio members in the managing director, the secretary for trea­sury and the secretary for justice.

Massive search for missing researchers in West New Britain

Caption: PNGIMR director Prof Peter Siba… 'massive search going on'

 

By MALUM NALU

 

Management of the PNG Institute of Medical Research has refuted "malicious allegations" on EMTV that it was not doing enough with the search and research and rescue efforts for its missing researchers.

 The five missing staff from the PNGIMR - Tanya Oakiva, Gibson Gideon, Leonard Vavana, George Dogoya, and Lydia Petrus - departed Milimala on mainland West New Britain destined for Bali Island on Aug 1 and have never been seen since then.

 "There seems to be lack of communication between relatives here in Goroka and other centres, and this has led to relatives getting emotional and over-sensitising the issues in the media," PNGIMR director Prof Peter Siba said today.

 "Since receiving news of the missing team, IMR has provided huge financial support towards the search operations.

 "This is of the biggest search operations in the history of PNG with the assistance of West New Britain provincial disaster office and the administration, National Disaster Office, National Maritime Safety Authority, Digicel, New Tribe Mission, Islands Airways, North Coast Aviation, Niugini Helicopters, Police and NBC West New Britain being engaged in search and rescue efforts.

 "The efforts include aerial searches along the New Britain island and the smaller islands within the West New Britain waters, Islands as far west as Long Island, Siassi islands, Bagbag, Karkar Island and along river tributaries on the main West New Britain mainland.

 "Provincial disaster offices in other provinces including East New Britain, New Ireland, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Manus, Madang and Morobe have been informed and are doing what they can to assist."

 Prof Siba said as the area where the boat went missing was known for piracy-related activities, police had now been engaged.

 "Due to the sensitivity of the situation, much of the information on police activity is not available," he said.

 "Boat sightings have been reported, but, many of these stories are second, third or fourth-hand news and difficult to pinpoint the person who saw the boated and reported it initially.

 "The IMR management appeals to the locals to assist us in providing factual information about any sightings of the boat or missing people.

 "Search and rescue efforts are now concentrating on land as piracy becomes the main focus of investigations by police.

 "PNGIMR, in dialogue with the West New Britain provincial disaster office have since put a reward for information leading to recovery of its staff.

"The search is still continuing and we ask the relatives to understand the magnitude of this search operation and provide positive contributions and not malicious and negative attacks against the IMR.

 "The missing staff are employees and 'family' members of the PNGIMR, which is a State entity of the Government of PNG.

 "The IMR management and staff sympathise with the families of the missing staff, and are regularly updating the relatives."

 Prof Siba said the 2011 PNG Medical Symposium in Kimbe was still on, and could not be dictated by anybody other than the PNG Medical Society.

 "As usual, the IMR, as the premium research institution in the country, is sending a large group of participants to attend the symposium," he said.

PNG gets low literacy rating

By DULCIE OREKE

PAPUA New Guinea is placed at 148 out of 182 countries in a United Nations listing on national literacy rates, National Literacy Awareness Secretariat Willie Jonduo says, The National reports.
He said according to census 2000, of the six million people, "43.8% are illiterate".
"These statistics are alarming because when PNG is compared with the rest of the
countries in the world, using the United Nations human development index, its placing is 148th out of 182 listed countries," he said.
Jonduo said the Education Department, national library and the national literacy awareness secretariat had joined forces to improve the national literacy rate every year.
He said while the rest of the world would be celebrating International Literacy Day on Sept 8, PNG had extended that to a week given the language complexity and cultural diversity.
"The world is keeping an eye on PNG's education to ease and eventually eradicate illiteracy," he said.
Jonduo said PNG was a signatory to United Nations' declaration on education for all (EFA), and the country had to report on the achievements of EFA goals in 2015.
He asked if the country had evidence to show that it had done anything to achieve the EFA goals.
He said these goals included:

•   Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
• Ensuring the learning needs of young people and adults were met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes;
• Ensuring that by 2015 all children had access to free and compulsory primary education of good quality;
• Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015; and
• Improving all aspects of the quality and excellent of education with measurable learning outcomes.

PNG gets low literacy rating

By DULCIE OREKE

PAPUA New Guinea is placed at 148 out of 182 countries in a United Nations listing on national literacy rates, National Literacy Awareness Secretariat Willie Jonduo says, The National reports.
He said according to census 2000, of the six million people, "43.8% are illiterate".
"These statistics are alarming because when PNG is compared with the rest of the
countries in the world, using the United Nations human development index, its placing is 148th out of 182 listed countries," he said.
Jonduo said the Education Department, national library and the national literacy awareness secretariat had joined forces to improve the national literacy rate every year.
He said while the rest of the world would be celebrating International Literacy Day on Sept 8, PNG had extended that to a week given the language complexity and cultural diversity.
"The world is keeping an eye on PNG's education to ease and eventually eradicate illiteracy," he said.
Jonduo said PNG was a signatory to United Nations' declaration on education for all (EFA), and the country had to report on the achievements of EFA goals in 2015.
He asked if the country had evidence to show that it had done anything to achieve the EFA goals.
He said these goals included:

•   Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
• Ensuring the learning needs of young people and adults were met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes;
• Ensuring that by 2015 all children had access to free and compulsory primary education of good quality;
• Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015; and
• Improving all aspects of the quality and excellent of education with measurable learning outcomes.