Fund optimistic

By Geraldine Panapasa of Fiji Times
Monday, August 12, 2013

THE Fiji National Provident Fund has remained positive and open with regards to any investment opportunity, says board chairman Ajith Kodagoda.

And as trustees for FNPF members, Mr Kodagoda said the board would ensure that any investment would need to meet the investment guideline and criteria.
He made the comment in light of the recent fall-out with Papua New Guinea-based mobile company, bemobile.
In terms of plans to divert investment funds intended for the bemobile joint venture, Mr Kodagoda said they would need to work with the Reserve Bank of Fiji as they had specific approval conditions for this investment fund.
"A key condition precedent relating to the achievement of the approved business plan was not achieved by bemobile," he said.
When asked what the key condition was, Mr Kodagoda said that was "legally confidential".
"As part of the management agreement with Vodafone Fiji Limited, some employees were already contracted by bemobile. Most of them are now back in Fiji," he said.
While the intended $US92million ($F175.7m) investment in bemobile would have meant a 40 per cent stake in the mobile company, Mr Kodagoda said the investment was safe.
He said earlier the money was never invested as capital because the conditions precedent was never met.
Daniel Korimbao, spokesman for PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, told The Fiji Times investing in bemobile was part of their government's strategy to grow the telecommunications sector.
He said the State would pursue this itself or with other partners since FNPF had pulled out of the deal.
According to Post-Courier, the withdrawal from the global telecommunications company dashed hopes by PNG mobile phone users for another carrier to directly compete with Irish-owned Digicel (PNG) Ltd and reduce phone and data rates

Manus management 'needs improvement': PNG

  Source: Rhiannon Elston, SBS

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O'Neill, has responded to allegations of abuse on Manus Island by saying management at the Australian-funded facility needs improvement.
Yesterday, SBS's Dateline program broke allegations of rape, abuse and serial self-harm among asylum seekers on PNG's Manus Island.
"We've got our Immigration Department that is working very closely with their Australian counterparts in managing the processing centre and of course we do get regular briefs from our own people," Mr O'Neill told PNG radio program FM 100 this morning.
He added that the construction of a permanent facility would help improve conditions.
"The ongoing issue is you've got people from different areas living together," he said. "Our aim is to try and build a permanent facility that is going to reduce those kind of opportunities.
"There are some issues about management of the refugee processing centre, and I think as governments we need to manage that better.
"Some of the contractors who are managing the facility are not doing the job that they are paid to do," he said.
The PNG PM also highlighted the financial benefits of the new asylum seeker deal for his country, which will see all asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat sent to Manus Island for processing and settlement.
"With the recent deal we have done with the Australian government, we are rebuilding the University of Papua New Guinea and also the University of Technology," he said. 
He also discussed a plan for Australian police forces to fly to Port Moresby to help train graduate police officers in a bid to reduce corruption.
"We are discussing this matter with the Australian government to train police forces," he said. "Fifty policemen will be here before Christmas under the agreement we have just reached."
Mr O'Neill said his nation would "set the priorities" on how aid money from Australia would be spent. "The PNG government knows the priorities we have, but sometimes we do not have the money to do it ourselves."
He added that he didn't believe many asylum seekers would choose to stay in Papua New Guinea in the longer term.
"This is a very Christian thing to do," he said. "We are just fearful because [many asylum seekers] are Muslims or coming from places we don't know."
"Most of them, we know they are not genuine refugees, that means they will be flown back to their country of origin, and if they do not want to go there they will be taken to a third country," he said.
"I don't think the numbers people think will come and flood our country will be as big as people think," he added.
"In fact, I am very certain this will not be the case."
Meanwhile, the director of the only hospital on Manus Island disputed claims of rape and self-harm at the asylum seeker facility, saying he had not seen or heard of any evidence to suggest they took place.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke says he's taking the whistleblower's accusations seriously, and will travel to Manus Island this week to investigate the claims.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott told press this morning the government should have known about the alleged problems earlier.
"They have to be investigated and if people have done the wrong thing, well they ought to be punished," he said.
"I should point out that Scott Morrison has been warning the government for months that there were serious risks of bullying and abuse and violence in detention centres both here and overseas. I'm disappointed that the government has made light of Scott Morrison's warnings."

Total's Papua New Guinea venture makes modest start

By Ross Kelly 
Wall Street Journal

SYDNEY--Total SA's (TOT) foray into Papua New Guinea has gotten off to a shaky start after two exploration wells failed to find much natural gas, according to the French company's Australian partner in the project.
Oil Search Ltd. (OSH.AU) said in a statement Tuesday that the first two exploration wells in a campaign to tap new natural gas resources in the country--Flinders and Hagana--had yielded only "relatively modest" amounts of the fuel.
Oil Search said both wells, though, had intersected good quality types of rock--possibly indicating the presence of larger natural gas reserves nearby that could be targeted with further drilling. A Perth-based spokeswoman for Total declined to comment, and a call to Oil Search, whose shares fell 2.6% in Sydney, wasn't immediately returned.
Papua New Guinea, an impoverished southeast Asian nation that lies just north of Australia and to the east of mainland Indonesia, has around 22.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, U.K.-based consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimates--about equal to U.S. annual consumption of the commodity. That likely underestimates the true potential, however, as the country has so far only been lightly explored for oil and gas.
Recent big discoveries by the likes of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) have transformed Papua New Guinea, better known for its jungles and lawlessness, into one of the world's hottest energy plays. Its promise as a hub for new sources of natural gas has begun to lure an increasing number of larger oil companies, including Total, looking to feed Asia's growing appetite for fuels that burn cleaner than coal.
Rival Exxon's US$19 billion liquefied-natural-gas project, dubbed PNG LNG, is among the more advanced in Papua New Guinea. The facility is scheduled to ship its first LNG cargos to Japan, China and Taiwan next year, while more recent gas discoveries have led Exxon and its partners already to begin planning an expansion of the project.
Aiming to mirror Exxon's success, Total last year bought stakes ranging from 35%-50% in five exploration blocks owned by Oil Search in the Gulf of Papua that it hoped would underpin the creation of another big LNG plant in the country. The French oil producer has a strong foothold in the Asia-Pacific region already, having spent billions of dollars buying up stakes in two large LNG projects in neighbouring Australia.
Total bought into the Papua New Guinean blocks by promising to cover the drilling costs for Oil Search, a much smaller player. No specific price tag was ever disclosed.
Andrew Williams, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Melbourne, said the first two wells hadn't delivered a significant discovery, but described the drilling results as "mixed" in view of the quality of the rocks encountered by the wells.
"The play remains high risk but encouraging enough to commit to another well in the current programme," Mr. Williams said, noting that Oil Search had identified more than 30 potential drilling prospects in the area. Hagana is still drilling ahead to its targeted depth, while a third well is also being prepared.
"Although the volumes at Flinders and Hagana are likely to be relatively modest, the company has been sufficiently encouraged to take up a further well option, and will drill the Kidukidu prospect once Hagana-1 is completed," Oil Search said in its statement.
Underscoring the country's perceived potential, Exxon has also started talks to invest in U.S.-based InterOil Corp.'s (IOC) Papua New Guinean natural gas assets, and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO) agreed, in February, to a US$280 million deal to buy stakes in several natural gas discoveries made by Canada's Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM).

Write to Ross Kelly at ross.kelly@wsj.com 

Wood Group PSN awarded Papua New Guinea contract

23 July 2013 | 08:42am

StockMarketWire.com - Wood Group PSN has been awarded a contract by Esso Highlands Ltd, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp, to provide engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services to support its Papua New Guinea (PNG)liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations.

Under the contract, WGPSN will provide brownfield engineering and procurement support to ExxonMobil's operations in PNG, including construction and maintenance services to both the Hides gas conditioning plant in the highlands,and the LNG plant northwest of Port Moresby. It is effective from August 1, 2013.

- See more at: http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4636709/Wood-Group-PSN-awarded-Papua-New-Guinea-contract.html#sthash.Ace9nROf.dpuf

Wood Group PSN awarded Papua New Guinea contract

23 July 2013 | 08:42am

StockMarketWire.com - Wood Group PSN has been awarded a contract by Esso Highlands Ltd, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp, to provide engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services to support its Papua New Guinea (PNG)liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations.

Under the contract, WGPSN will provide brownfield engineering and procurement support to ExxonMobil's operations in PNG, including construction and maintenance services to both the Hides gas conditioning plant in the highlands,and the LNG plant northwest of Port Moresby. It is effective from August 1, 2013.

- See more at: http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4636709/Wood-Group-PSN-awarded-Papua-New-Guinea-contract.html#sthash.Ace9nROf.dpuf

Wood Group PSN awarded Papua New Guinea contract

23 July 2013 | 08:42am

StockMarketWire.com - Wood Group PSN has been awarded a contract by Esso Highlands Ltd, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp, to provide engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services to support its Papua New Guinea (PNG)liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations.

Under the contract, WGPSN will provide brownfield engineering and procurement support to ExxonMobil's operations in PNG, including construction and maintenance services to both the Hides gas conditioning plant in the highlands,and the LNG plant northwest of Port Moresby. It is effective from August 1, 2013.

- See more at: http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4636709/Wood-Group-PSN-awarded-Papua-New-Guinea-contract.html#sthash.Ace9nROf.dpuf

Joe Kanekane’s funeral service on Wednesday, July 24

By MALUM NALU

The funeral service of respected senior public servant and PNG Media Council president Joe Kanekane will be held at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, East Boroko, on Wednesday, July 24.

Kanekane, 44, from Kowengil village in Ialibu, Southern Highlands, was director of the PNG Law and Justice Sector Secretariat (LJSS), at the times of his death from heart attack at Tabubil Hospital in Western province on Sunday, July 14, while on vacation.

Kanekane in his role as PNG Media Council president.-Picture courtesy of Community Development Initiative

Funeral service will be held from 9am to 12pm, after which the body will be taken to the Funeral Home at Erima, where it lies until 6pm when it is taken to the family home at Rainbow Village to overnight.

On Thursday morning, the body will be flown to Kagamuga Airport in Mt Hagen, where the Baisu Correctional Services band will lead proceedings.

The funeral possession then leaves for Imbonggu, Southern Highlands, stepping along the wayside at Telgha LJSS project sites, and Lower Nebilyer for last respects, before departing for Imbonggu where it will be met by MP and Works Minister Francis Awesa at Walum district office.

The body will be then taken to Kanekane’s beloved Kowengil village, where the traditional haus krai (house of mourning) begins, and lasts until next Monday for funeral service and burial.

Kanekane held an MBA, a degree in arts with honours from the University of Papua New Guinea and a post-graduate diploma from the University of Wales.

He was president of the PNG Media Council, chairman of the Individual and Community Rights Advocacy Forum (ICRAF) board, a member of the National Scouts Association Board and was the chairman of the PNG Censorship board.

He was also on the Caritas PNG board, was co-chairman of the Community Coalition against Corruption and was an accomplished poet and writer.

Kanekane travelled around the country while he was growing up as his father, Kanekane Kepa, was a jail warder.

 He was a trained primary school teacher before he took up university studies in 1989.

His mother Cecilia told The National at his haus krai that Kanekane was born in Maprik, East Sepik, on Sept 9, 1968.

He began primary school in Wapenamanda, Enga, and continued on to Laiagam, Banz in Western Highlands and Mt Hagen.

Kanekane went on to the Madang Teachers’ College where he trained for two years and then taught in Western Highlands before taking up studies at UPNG.

“He said he loved writing and wanted to become a journalist,” his mother recalled.

He did, with a successful career at Word Publishing before joining LJSS.

“It’s a big loss to the family and tribe, law and justice sector, media and the whole country,” LJSS chief internal auditor Robert Tukundo, a cousin of Kanekane, said.

PNG opposition leader to challenge asylum seeker deal in courts

ABC

Video: PNG Opposition challenges refugee agreement with Australia (Newsline)

Papua New Guinea's opposition leader Belden Namah says he will challenge the deal with Australia to process and resettle asylum seekers in the country's courts.

Mr Namah has told Australia Network's Newsline the deal is in breach of Papua New Guinea's constitution and human rights standards in United Nations conventions.
"I have instructed my lawyers, we are filing next week to challenge the asylum seekers arrangement with Australia," he said.
"I personally believe that I have a very good chance of success because Papua New Guinea's prime minister Peter O'Neill has failed to adhere to the constitution of our country."
Mr Namah says the asylum seekers are looking for protection in Australia and should not be forced against their will to stay in Papua New Guinea.
"We are basically acting against the rights of individuals who are seeking to find asylum in Australia," he said.
"We are pushing these people, who have travelled miles, travelled through stormy waters to reach Australia - they are not coming to look for asylum in Papua New Guinea."
He says the deal is a "political gimmick" and is not needed to boost Papua New Guinea's economy given the country's wealth of natural resources.
"We already have a multi-billion LNG project... that's enough money already to be able to buy enough medicine, to be able to buy enough beds for hospitals, rural hospitals in Papua New Guinea."
"We don't need money from asylum seekers - I see it as a total joke."
Mr Namah says Papua New Guinea's high poverty rate is due to the "poor financial management" of successive leaders and governments, rather than a lack of funds.
"It's not because we don't have money," he said.

O'Neill brags of closer grip on aid after refugee deal

 July 23, 2013

By Rory Callinan, Daniel Flitton

Sydney Morning Herald

Greater control of Australia's multimillion-dollar aid program to Papua New Guinea appears to have been handed back to the developing country as part of a sweetener to accept asylum seekers.
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, boasted on Monday that he had achieved a ''realignment'' of the country's aid program from Australia as part of the recently negotiated agreement.
Australia has spent billions of dollars in aid in the country and, last financial year, the amount was tipped to rise to about $500 million - the majority of which was to be closely controlled by AusAID in a bid to avoid corruption.

Done deal: Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd sign an agreement over asylum seekers on July 19, 2013. Photo: Glenn Hunt

Speaking just after arriving back in the country on Monday, an upbeat Mr O'Neill said his government would set the priorities for all of Australia's aid programs.
''We have had experience of where AusAID programs have been running parallel to our own programs and, of course, when the AusAID programs are delivered, there is nobody to take carriage of the programs after they are completed,'' he said.
Mr O'Neill said the country had developed programs to counter corruption.
''We already have AusAID workers in our financial treasury and across all departments, so I think those fears are unfounded,'' he said.
While Mr O'Neill was happy to give some insight into what had been offered to achieve the deal, he gave few details about how asylum seeker processing would work, except to say would-be refugees could arrive ''any day''.
He could not say how many refugees his country would accept.
''I cannot know what's going to happen in the future,'' he said. ''I don't think the numbers are going to be as big as expected.''
Papua New Guinea has battled corruption issues for years, leading to Australia's aid donations being closely managed and monitored by Australian government interests.
Last year, Sam Koim, the head of Papua New Guinea's new anti-corruption unit, Taskforce Sweep, described the country as suffering from a level of fraud that had ''migrated from sporadic corruption to systematic and now an institutionalised form of corruption''.
A spokesman for Foreign Minster Bob Carr said Australia always had a partnership agreement with Papua New Guinea over where aid money is spent, with Australia deciding the amount.
He said Mr O'Neill had identified health, law and order and education as the main priorities for Australian aid but not all the $500 million program would be directed to these areas.
''Each individual aid project needs to meet the test of merit and show to be an appropriate use of aid money,'' the spokesman said.
But the country’s opposition leader,  Belden Namah, spoke critically of the deal. ‘‘[The Prime Minister] has failed miserably by not consulting the people through their elected representatives on the floor of parliament,’’ he said. "The problem in PNG is not money.
"It's about bad financial management and corruption."

A history of PNG corruption

June 19, 2013: Law enforcement sources tell Fairfax up to $500 million may have been stolen from PNG government legal aid funds over several years, which may have been siphoned to Australian banks.
October 8, 2012: An analysis by Task Force Sweep (TFS), a national corruption watchdog, finds up to half of PNG’s 7.6 billion kina (about $3.5 billion AUD) development budget from 2009 through 2011 was lost to corrupt practices or mismanagement by public officials and government departments.
16 February 2011: Australia’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea says he’s very concerned an Australian aid advisor may have been attacked for fighting corruption.
2011: Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer shows that 85% of PNG people survey found that the level of corruption has increased in the last three years.
2007: In a diplomatic cable later released by Wikileaks, the US embassy in Port Moresby refers to a PNG Health Minister: "mostly remembered for his insistence that he was just a politician and therefore could not be held responsible for the fact that the country’s hospitals had run out of medicines while his ministry was still flush with cash".
with Daniel Flitton

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/oneill-brags-of-closer-grip-on-aid-after-refugee-deal-20130722-2qevs.html#ixzz2ZrXfLGKh

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill unclear on specifics of Rudd government refugee plan

By Peter Michael in Port Moresby

From The Courier-Mail

PAPUA New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill is unclear on a total quota, cost or how long Australia will foot the bill for the refugee resettlement deal struck with the Federal Government.

Mr O'Neill flew back into a political storm in Port Moresby yesterday after signing the plan in Brisbane on Friday and publicly appealed to his strife-torn nation to accept the agreement.
The Pacific leader revealed the first boatload of asylum seekers to be processed under new rules was due at Manus Island detention centre, 810km north of the capital, within days.
But he was unable to put a dollar figure on the total cost of the refugee and resettlement program, a time frame on how long it would continue, or how much Kevin Rudd had committed to funding in the enhanced billion-dollar aid budget.
"Costings have not been done. I cannot just simply give you a figure that is imaginary,'' Mr O'Neill said.
"I think Papua New Guinea has done well out of this. It is a good deal for the country.''
Asked how many refugees PNG could realistically accept, Mr O'Neill said he believed the number of boat arrivals, averaging about 100 a day, would drastically fall off under the prospect of resettlement.
"We don't know the numbers yet. I don't think the numbers are going to be as big as what we think. I think there will be a quick decline. You can see from the report that smugglers who are now profiting from this exercise have already said they are going to stop boat people travelling.
"Genuine refugees will still travel but not the economic migrants.
"I think it will fall off and there will be much lower numbers.''
Manus Island facility would be fast-tracked from its present capacity of 250 to house 600 by next year while they would negotiate with other Pacific Island nations to get them to accept a certain quota of genuine refugees, he said.
His decision to support Mr Rudd's political deterrent to resettle genuine refugees who illegally arrive by boat in Australia has caused uproar in the poverty-stricken developing nation with a population of 7 million.
Locals have expressed concern about a "culture clash" and open hostility to the mostly Muslim refugees.
"I think those fears are unfounded, there is nothing in the agreement that says refugees will get priority over our citizens," he said.
"We call ourselves a Christian country. I think we need to show some compassion and some sympathy to genuine refugees.''
Mr O'Neill said it was not a new deal but one struck with the Howard government in 2006, restarted by the Gillard government, and "extended further" by the Rudd Government.
PNG is a land of contrasts full of potential in tourism, mining and a $19 billion gas project.
It is also beset by lawlessness, high unemployment, poverty, crumbling infrastructure and a health, housing and education crisis.
Under the new refugee deal, Australia will half fund the rebuild of PNG higher education system, build a new hospital at Lae, and upgrade the airport, health centres and schools at Manus Island.
PNG Opposition leader Belden Nama said it was an "agreement between two men" and
"Peter O'Neill is making decisions like a chicken with no head," he said.
He said it was kow-towing to old colonial masters.
"Do we need to make money off asylum seekers? No. PNG's problem is not money, but bad financial management."
At the notorious Six Mile market, a haven for violence and petty crime, betel nut seller Grace Moh, 25, said they were deadly opposed to the move.
"We don't want to get corrupted by other cultures," said fellow shopkeeper Obert Baree.
"They come to spoil us."
PNG has passed a motion in Parliament to talk about banning other religions from the Christian-dominated nation. Island nations to get them to accept a certain quota of genuine refugees, he said.

His decision to support Mr Rudd's political deterrent to resettle genuine refugees who illegally arrive by boat in Australia has caused uproar in the poverty-stricken developing nation with a population of 7 million.
Locals have expressed concern about a "culture clash" and open hostility to the mostly Muslim refugees.
"I think those fears are unfounded, there is nothing in the agreement that says refugees will get priority over our citizens," he said.
"We call ourselves a Christian country. I think we need to show some compassion and some sympathy to genuine refugees.''
Mr O'Neill said it was not a new deal but one struck with the Howard government in 2006, restarted by the Gillard government, and "extended further" by the Rudd Government.
PNG is a land of contrasts full of potential in tourism, mining and a $19 billion gas project.
It is also beset by lawlessness, high unemployment, poverty, crumbling infrastructure and a health, housing and education crisis.
Under the new refugee deal, Australia will half fund the rebuild of PNG higher education system, build a new hospital at Lae, and upgrade the airport, health centres and schools at Manus Island.
PNG Opposition leader Belden Nama said it was an "agreement between two men" and
"Peter O'Neill is making decisions like a chicken with no head," he said.
He said it was kow-towing to old colonial masters.
"Do we need to make money off asylum seekers? No. PNG's problem is not money, but bad financial management."
At the notorious Six Mile market, a haven for violence and petty crime, betel nut seller Grace Moh, 25, said they were deadly opposed to the move.
"We don't want to get corrupted by other cultures," said fellow shopkeeper Obert Baree.
"They come to spoil us."
PNG has passed a motion in Parliament to talk about banning other religions from the Christian-dominated nation.