Wednesday, September 18, 2013

PNGSDP supports CMCA against expropriation of Ok Tedi



PNG Sustainable Development Program today supported recent statements by Community Mine Continuation Agreement leaders rejecting the Government's proposed expropriation of Ok Tedi Mining Limited.
PNGSDP CEO David Sode said the CMCA leaders were right and were entitled to their expressed views: the Government takeover of a mine owned 100 percent by the people of Papua New Guinea, without paying them compensation, is unacceptable, not only in PNG but anywhere in the world.
"Any such takeover strips away the right of the CMCA people to have the final say in whether the mine continues or not, and threatens their involvement in decisions on the appropriate level of compensation for environmental damage," he said.
"It also puts at risk the receipt and management of their rightful share of dividends from the mine, and the social and economic development that is provided from those dividends. It also takes away their rightful share of dividend flows from the mine."
Mr Sode said it was important that full consultations should take place as they had for every other major decision on the mine, including the Ok Tedi Mine Continuation Ninth Supplemental Agreement Act 2001, the 2006-2007 Review of the CMCA and just last year the Mine Life Extension proposal now before the Government.
It is apparent that The CMCA had not been fully consulted in this case until the leaders took matters into their own hands and insisted that the Prime Minister meet them in Tabubil in August. The Prime Minister has not responded to the concerns expressed by the CMCA leaders at the Tabubil meeting.
"The Prime Minister has a moral as well as legal obligation to consult the people who own the resource and are the only people in the country affected by any environmental impact from the operation of the mine," Mr Sode said.
"Why has the Western Province in general and the CMCA communities in particular not been consulted?
"The Government's proposals change everything, yet there has not been one bit of consultation. There needs to be full consultation with all Western Province people before any decision can be made."
He said PNGSDP, as custodian of the Western Province people's shares in OTML, shares CMCA concerns for the future well-being of the mine-impacted communities, including mine area landowners."
PNGSDP supports the continuation of the PNGSDP-CMCA arrangements.
PNGSDP has a clear legal and moral duty to protect the interests of the CMCA communities and Western Province and to protect the value of the assets that it holds on their behalf, Mr Sode said.
He pointed out the dangerous precedent being set by the Prime Minister and members of Parliament who vote in favor of such expropriation bills in attempting to exercise improper use of the legislative powers to steal the Western Province’s inheritance.
"Is he going to get away with this and is it going to be repeated elsewhere?
"Resource owners throughout PNG should be aware of the precedent being set and stand up for their rights and support the CMCA leaders."

David Sode
Chief Executive Officer
Posted by at No comments:

PNGSDP slams O'Neill announcement: OTML takeover amounts to theft



The chairman of PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited, Sir Mekere Morauta, said the decision by the Prime Minister to expropriate Ok Tedi Mining Limited without compensation was "nothing more than stealing an asset belonging the people of Western Province.
Sir Mekere Morauta

"Those shares are owned by the people of Western Province, not PNGSDP. PNGSDP is merely the custodians of them.
"The Prime Minister is legally and morally obliged to pay a full and fair price if he is so determined to get his hands on them."
Sir Mekere said PNGSDP would do everything in its power to prevent expropriation without compensation, and was ready to take legal action if Mr O'Neill brought this dangerous legislation to Parliament.
The company would stand with the people of Western Province, especially the communities affected by mine operations and landowners, who have voiced their strong opposition to the Government's plans.
"PNGSDP has a duty to protect Western Province people's assets, and will do so with all necessary legal means," Sir Mekere said.
"Stealing an asset worth approximately K2 billion to the people of Western Province, plus their annual K450 million share of the Ok Tedi dividends, is not acceptable legally or morally. It is unconstitutional as well.
"I also fear that this is just the first step - I hope he dos not want to get his hands on PNGSDP itself and the $US1.4 billion in the Long Term Fund."
Sir Mekere said he was shocked by the Prime Minister's announcement of the expropriation on EMTV last night. He had spent the past six months trying to negotiate with the PM for a fair deal on the Western Province's 63.4 percent shareholding held by PNGSDP.
He was aware that many MPs were concerned by Mr O'Neill's decision, which had been taken in isolation and against the recommendations of some of his most senior and respected advisors.
Sir Mekere said Mr O'Neill's criticism of PNGSDP's record on sustainable social and economic development were nonsense - PNGSDP's had spent approximately K1.18 billion on more than 600 sustainable social and economic development projects since it began operations in 2002.
"Compare PNGSDP's commitment to development of Western Province with the achievements of the national Government," he said. "The national government has done very little for Western Province with the $US3.8 billion it has received in taxes and dividends from Ok Tedi.
"Where has that money gone?  It has been wasted, mismanaged and misappropriated and PNGSDP has been left to do things that are rightfully the responsibility of the Government. Just imagine what will happen if the Government gets its hands on the PNGSDP dividends and the $US1.4 billion in the Long Term Fund.
"That money is to be used for development for 40 years after the mine closes."
Sir Mekere said PNGSDP had been an efficient, responsible, transparent and accountable custodian of Western Province's assets, and compared its performance with the Government's record in business and financial management.
All the value in the Tolukuma mine was destroyed when it was put into a State-Owned Enterprise and came under political influence. Other SOEs were struggling under the same burden - power supplies and water and sewerage systems across the country are totally inadequate. The delivery of essential services was bad and getting worse.
"The risks of turning OTML into an SOE far outweigh the benefits. It would destroy the mine and threaten the future flow of dividends and consequently the future development of Western Province.
"Now is not the time for the Government to be making this decision when reliable sources estimate that AT LEAST billions of kina has gone missing from Government coffers in the last few years:
o    Mr Sam Koim, head of Operation Sweep, estimates that almost half of the annual development budget between 2009 and 2011 was stolen –this amounts to approximately K3.5 billion.
o    The O'Neill Government's own Minister for Works and Implementation, Mr Francis Awesa, estimates that K9 billion seems to have disappeared from government-held trust accounts between 2007 and 2011."
Sir Mekere also said expropriating a privately-owned asset with no compensation sends a very bad message to the world.
"The international perception will be that no company's asset or investment is safe, that PNG is not a good place to invest."

Mekere Morauta KCMG
Chairman
Posted by at No comments:

Police: Black Cat murder suspects are ‘dead men walking’



By MALUM NALU
 
Morobe police commander Leo Lamei says the four remaining suspects in last Tuesday’s Black Cat Trail murders and attacks are basically “dead men walking” if they do not turn themselves in like their four colleagues did on Sunday.
He told The National yesterday there were now up to 74 police officers and villagers scouring the rugged terrain between Wau and Salamaua for the remaining four suspects, after four were arrested on Sunday, and there was little if no chance of them escaping or getting out alive if they did not turn themselves in.
Police – with their ‘Eye InThe Sky’ helicopter - have been searching the rugged terrain between Wau and Salamaua for the gang that killed two local porters and attacked eight expatriate trekkers along the Black Cat Trail last Tuesday.
A man suspected of harbouring the suspects was hacked to death by angry relatives of murdered porter, Mathew Gibob, of Skin Diwai village.
“I ask them to surrender to police, village leaders, or pastors,” Lamei said.
“If they do not surrender, the relatives of the dead and injured porters will attack them.
“I also appeal to the relatives not to take the law into their own hands.”
Lamei commended villagers from all along the Black Cat Trail from Wau to Salamaua for their support.
“I want to commend the villagers, the people of Salamaua, the people of Wau, and especially the villagers of Bitoi and Mubo,” he said.
“Without them, we would not have arrested the first four suspects.
“They are still supporting us.”
Lame said the hard work put in by police over the last week deserved the highest praise.
“I would like to praise my men for a job well done, especially in arresting the first four suspects in just a few days, when it could have taken weeks or months in such rugged terrain,” he said.
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Porter's death in decrepit hospital

ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR
The Australian 
 September 17, 2013


SIX Papua New Guinea porters have been transferred to an international hospital in Lae after a third victim of the Black Cat Track attacks died, apparently of infection and heart failure, in the substandard facility to which all the local survivors were initially sent.
Lae International Hospital chairman Malcolm Lewis said when he visited Angau public hospital on Sunday, one of the men was lying in blood-soaked bandages on a blood-soaked bed.
Lionel Aigilo...the latest porter to die

"Another, who'd just had an operation, was lying on an inch-thick mattress on the floor in pain," Mr Lewis said. "Most had infections, but none had penicillin drips. They were just copping it. It was terrible."
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was promised priority funding from his then counterpart Kevin Rudd for a $355 million renovation to the dilapidated hospital, the cost to be shared equally as a part of the PNG asylum-seeker deal.
Mr Lewis said food and water for the injured porters had not been provided by Angau, but was brought into the hospital by staff from the Newcrest-run Morobe Mining venture as well as by Daniel King, whose wife Christie was the guide who led the Australians and one New Zealander attacked on the trek to safety.
Mr Lewis, an Australian whose Lae-based engineering firm Hornibrook NGI employs more than 1000, said when the porters were taken to Angau last week only one doctor and a nurse were working.
Power outages, he said, had caused operations to be postponed. On Sunday, when Lae International had sought to obtain specially donated blood so it could prepare to operate on the porters, the Angau blood bank was closed all day because it was a long weekend; Independence Day followed yesterday and hospital management had been unavailable. "We know what happens in Angau," he said, its main buildings having collapsed from white-ant infestation. "People die."
Mr Lewis's wife, Sherron, managing director at Lae International Hospital, said the new facility was built four years ago with the help of a team including Queensland orthopaedic surgeon Greg Day.
"In Lae, just hours from the country (Australia) that has one of the best standards of medical care in the world, people suffer and die alone," Mrs Lewis said.
"We don't need a medical fund for the porters. That sort of thing obscures the whole issue and becomes 'band-aid therapy'. We are now treating them for free. 
"What is needed . . . is attention from both the domestic community and from international friends to get our public hospital up to a standard where it can at least get the basic standards right. That would really help."

Porter's death in decrepit hospital

  • ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR
  • The Australian
  • September 17, 2013 12:00AM

Share

expand
Share on google_plusone_share
Share on email
SIX Papua New Guinea porters have been transferred to an international hospital in Lae after a third victim of the Black Cat Track attacks died, apparently of infection and heart failure, in the substandard facility to which all the local survivors were initially sent.
Lae International Hospital chairman Malcolm Lewis said when he visited Angau public hospital on Sunday, one of the men was lying in blood-soaked bandages on a blood-soaked bed.
"Another, who'd just had an operation, was lying on an inch-thick mattress on the floor in pain," Mr Lewis said. "Most had infections, but none had penicillin drips. They were just copping it. It was terrible."
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was promised priority funding from his then counterpart Kevin Rudd for a $355 million renovation to the dilapidated hospital, the cost to be shared equally as a part of the PNG asylum-seeker deal.
Mr Lewis said food and water for the injured porters had not been provided by Angau, but was brought into the hospital by staff from the Newcrest-run Morobe Mining venture as well as by Daniel King, whose wife Christie was the guide who led the Australians and one New Zealander attacked on the trek to safety.
Mr Lewis, an Australian whose Lae-based engineering firm Hornibrook NGI employs more than 1000, said when the porters were taken to Angau last week only one doctor and a nurse were working.
Power outages, he said, had caused operations to be postponed. On Sunday, when Lae International had sought to obtain specially donated blood so it could prepare to operate on the porters, the Angau blood bank was closed all day because it was a long weekend; Independence Day followed yesterday and hospital management had been unavailable. "We know what happens in Angau," he said, its main buildings having collapsed from white-ant infestation. "People die."
Mr Lewis's wife, Sherron, managing director at Lae International Hospital, said the new facility was built four years ago with the help of a team including Queensland orthopaedic surgeon Greg Day.
"In Lae, just hours from the country (Australia) that has one of the best standards of medical care in the world, people suffer and die alone," Mrs Lewis said.
"We don't need a medical fund for the porters. That sort of thing obscures the whole issue and becomes 'band-aid therapy'. We are now treating them for free.
"What is needed . . . is attention from both the domestic community and from international friends to get our public hospital up to a standard where it can at least get the basic standards right. That would really help."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/porters-death-in-decrepit-hospital/story-e6frg6nf-1226720485698#sthash.hnUDdVXA.dpuf

Porter's death in decrepit hospital

  • ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR
  • The Australian
  • September 17, 2013 12:00AM

Share

expand
Share on google_plusone_share
Share on email
SIX Papua New Guinea porters have been transferred to an international hospital in Lae after a third victim of the Black Cat Track attacks died, apparently of infection and heart failure, in the substandard facility to which all the local survivors were initially sent.
Lae International Hospital chairman Malcolm Lewis said when he visited Angau public hospital on Sunday, one of the men was lying in blood-soaked bandages on a blood-soaked bed.
"Another, who'd just had an operation, was lying on an inch-thick mattress on the floor in pain," Mr Lewis said. "Most had infections, but none had penicillin drips. They were just copping it. It was terrible."
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was promised priority funding from his then counterpart Kevin Rudd for a $355 million renovation to the dilapidated hospital, the cost to be shared equally as a part of the PNG asylum-seeker deal.
Mr Lewis said food and water for the injured porters had not been provided by Angau, but was brought into the hospital by staff from the Newcrest-run Morobe Mining venture as well as by Daniel King, whose wife Christie was the guide who led the Australians and one New Zealander attacked on the trek to safety.
Mr Lewis, an Australian whose Lae-based engineering firm Hornibrook NGI employs more than 1000, said when the porters were taken to Angau last week only one doctor and a nurse were working.
Power outages, he said, had caused operations to be postponed. On Sunday, when Lae International had sought to obtain specially donated blood so it could prepare to operate on the porters, the Angau blood bank was closed all day because it was a long weekend; Independence Day followed yesterday and hospital management had been unavailable. "We know what happens in Angau," he said, its main buildings having collapsed from white-ant infestation. "People die."
Mr Lewis's wife, Sherron, managing director at Lae International Hospital, said the new facility was built four years ago with the help of a team including Queensland orthopaedic surgeon Greg Day.
"In Lae, just hours from the country (Australia) that has one of the best standards of medical care in the world, people suffer and die alone," Mrs Lewis said.
"We don't need a medical fund for the porters. That sort of thing obscures the whole issue and becomes 'band-aid therapy'. We are now treating them for free.
"What is needed . . . is attention from both the domestic community and from international friends to get our public hospital up to a standard where it can at least get the basic standards right. That would really help."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/porters-death-in-decrepit-hospital/story-e6frg6nf-1226720485698#sthash.hnUDdVXA.dpuf
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)