PNG politicians’ grab power to misuse public money

Peter Jackson writes: THE PNG PARLIAMENT has weakened the investigative powers of the Ombudsman Commission and diluted politicians’ accountability for spending government funds.

It has established a so-called ‘parliamentary ombudsman committee’ that will make inquiries of its own.

This removes the independent power of the Commission to investigate matters such as politicians’ and departmental heads’ travel and the disbursement of regional funds.

All the politicians in the House were in on the act, voting 83-0 to amend the section of the Constitution empowering the Commission to issue directives to ministers and heads of departments.

Section 27(4) allows the Ombudsman to issue directives to prevent payments from public funds to these officeholders if it feels there is impropriety.

In the past, the Commission has used this provision to stop MPs taking overseas trips when it felt the trips were a waste of public funds and has prevented the Finance Department issuing cheques if it felt the motives were political.

The Commission froze the RESI (Rehabilitation Education Sector Infrastructure) funds last year after allegations that millions of kina were misappropriated.

It has been alleged that RESI funds were misused and diverted away from Kerevat national high school, an issue covered extensively by PNG Attitudeearlier this year.

Introducing the amendments as a private motion, Esa’ala MP Moses Maladina said section 27(4) had been used by the Ombudsman many times to stop cheques, thus preventing the implementation of government policy.

“We want to make it very clear that the action of the Ombudsman in issuing such directives is wrong,” he said.

Mr Maladina said there had been many physical confrontations between officers of the Ombudsman and PNG leaders at the international airport, as the ‘leaders’ sought to take trips that the Ombudsman considered inappropriate.

Let last year, an assassination attempt was made on the life of the Chief Ombudsman, Chronox Manek.The gunmen were caught but their motive has not been esablished.

YOU CAN READ MORE FROM PETER JACKSON ON HIS PNG ATTITUDE BLOG – http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/

Somare looking increasingly corrupt and out of touch

It has been a bad seven days for Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Michael Somare.

Firstly, last Wednesday, he was recommended for further investigation by the police under the criminal code for his unlawful conduct in engineering the escape of Julian Moti from lawful custody.

PNGs Prime Minister is looking increasingly corrupt

Then it became apparent that the Prime Minister had also failed to cooperate with the Ombudsman Commission investigation of the Moti affair and that he had attempted to prevent senior civil servants from giving evidence – leading the Ombudsman Commission and the media to claim a cover-up orchestrated by the PM.

To make things worse, on Friday of last week Somare was further accused of having compromised sea safety by unlawfully interfering in the appointment of the Chairman of the National Maritime Safety Authority and fostering on the nation a candidate who was eminently unsuitable for the role.

But it is the Prime Ministers reaction to these unfavorable findings from PNGs respected and independent Ombudsman Commission that says most about his lack of respect for the institutions of government and his arrogant disdain for the people of Papua New Guinea.

Rather than promising to cooperate with the proper authorities who are trying to do their constitutional jobs, the Prime Minister has chosen to attack them and try and destroy their credibility.

The Prime Minister has said he finds the “conduct of the Ombudsman Commission to be calculating, mischievous and lacking in transparency” and that its motive as appearing to be “sinister and reflecting a lack of objectivity and fairness in dealing with the matter at hand”

The Prime Minister seems to be forgetting that it was he who refused to cooperate with the Ombudsman Investigation in the Julian Moti affair; that it was he who issues an order trying to prevent senior civil servants from giving evidence; and that it was he who insisted Hamish Sharp be appointed Chair of the Maritime Safety Authority at a time when Sharp had been heavily criticized by the Authority over the sinking of one of his vessels and was suing the authority over its findings and for K1 million for defamation.

Further the Commission, after a 3 year inquiry and based on a 70 page report and substantial evidence including sworn testimony from numerous senior individuals including the former acting PNG Defence Force Commander and police Director of Legal Services, that it was Prime Minister Somare who unlawfully ordered Julian Moti’s release from custody and his escape from PNG on an air force plane.

The Ombudsman has also found that Somare coerced his Transport Minister to appoint Hamish Sharp as Chair of the Maritime Safety Board and that the appointment was made without due compliance with the law.  Since his appointment in 2006 Mr Sharp has only called two board meetings “seriously impacting on safety for the travelling public and ships crews”.

By attacking the Ombudsman Commission the Prime Minister is giving his approval for every other senior leader to ignore the institutions of government and showing that he regards himself to be above the law.

Clearly PNG can make no progress in defeating endemic corruption while Michael Somare remains Prime Minister.

Illegal logging destroying PNG

BARNEY ZWARTZ in The Age

Environmental vandalism by loggers in Papua New Guinea is destroying the nation and its people while Australia makes futile promises to try to influence logging policy, according to a former missionary and a landowner.

Brother Jim Coucher, a former missionary in Papua New Guinea.Photo: John Woudstra

Brother Jim Coucher worked in and near Vanimo on the north-west coast of PNG for 43 years until five years ago. Just returned from his first visit since, he was utterly horrified at the changes, he said yesterday, the speed of destruction caused by logging and corruption, and the plight of the local people.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised at December’s Copenhagen conference on climate change that he would try to persuade his neighbours to reduce logging.

”I don’t think anyone has an idea of the extent of logging, and I don’t think anything can be done,” Brother Coucher said. He does not want his religious order identified for fear of reprisals against members still working in Papua New Guinea.

A PNG landowner now living in Australia said yesterday that loggers came on to his land without consultation or compensation, and stockpiled logs there. The landowner, a sub-clan chief, said loggers destroyed a creek that had provided fish for his villagers.

They bulldozed breadfruit trees, sago and coconut palms, and built a wharf in the harbour that meant villagers could not fish. They hired almost no villagers, he said. Instead, they brought in unskilled Asian workers.

”Malnutrition is rampant. It is horrible to see young mothers who are skin and bone. There is no sanitation, no running water – it is a time bomb,” the landowner said. ”They are logging Vanimo to its death.”

Brother Coucher said the villagers were worse off than 20 years ago, because the logging companies and the government don’t put anything back.

Soldiers and police guard the logging camps under corrupt arrangements, prostitution and AIDS had become rife, and people could not support their families, he said. Logging practices by Malaysian companies in PNG have long been of international concern, but Brother Coucher said matters were much worse in Vanimo and Sandaun Province because it was so remote.

”You can only get in by sea or air, and there’s one coastal road. To calm the locals, the main landowner in an area might be given a vehicle and he supposedly keeps the villagers quiet,” he said.

”At first they welcome the loggers because they think it might mean money, but in fact they get very little out of it. The loggers don’t do any replanting or clearing up at all … and they give no benefits to the people. They use bulldozers to drag the logs, which creates all sorts of problems with erosion.”

In all the years the loggers had been in Sandaun there had been no development, Brother Coucher said, except for some work by AusAid on a hospital and putting bitumen on the road.

An AusAid spokeswoman said Australia and PNG were working together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, having signed a forest carbon partnership two years ago.

This included an initial $3 million to tackle policy and capacity challenges, plus a commitment to tackle illegal logging and a program to help PNG manage its forests sustainably.

Transparency International slams government for lack of respect

TRANSPARENCY International PNG (TIPNG) has slammed the government for its lack of repect for the ordinary people of Papua New Guinea and its ‘don’t care’ attitude about missing public finances, in comments reported in The National.

TI has also highlighted how the government’s tolerance of wide spread corruption translates into the non delivery of services to the vast majority of the population and foreshadows how most of the proceeds from major new projects like LNG will likely be stolen.

Transparency International’s concerns have been fueled by the findings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which has documented the collapse of the Governments’ financial management systems and revealed a complete lack of accountability within the public service.

TIPNG chairman Peter Aitsi said: “It is very sad to learn from the PAC that from the 1,000 inquiries carried out by the PAC into the operations of various Government agencies, hospital boards, and trust accounts, most have not complied with lawful requirements. “The Government must wake up. The PAC has sounded the alarm and the National Executive Council (NEC) must address this situation as its highest priority. “We understand the various PAC reports have been sitting with the NEC gathering dust. “If this is true, then indeed this is a cause for national shame.”

He said it was totally unacceptable that the Government, particularly the NEC, turned a blind eye to the reports. “What does it tell our people when one of the highest decision-making bodies in our country allows public money to be mismanaged and stolen. “It creates doubts and the people are asking, don’t they care? Are they involved? “This state of affairs suggests the Government has no respect for the people it is sworn to serve and is certainly not serious about ensuring that proper procedures and regulations, particularly the Financial Management Act, are adhered to by all agencies in a transparent manner.”

Mr Aitsi said such lack of action by the Government continued to feed and encourage more unlawful practices, translating into non-delivery of goods and services to ordinary Papua New Guineans. The PAC reports and the statement issued must resonate with the key people in Government that we are heading on a dangerous path. In the words of the PAC member and Eastern Highlands Governor Malcolm Kela-Smith, the loss of public funds as a result of corruption could be as high as K3 billion kina.

“If these corrupt networks are able to steal K3 billion of public money within our current economic levels, how much more are they likely to steal when the revenue for the LNG start flowing if we do not take firm and decisive action to fix our Government systems?”

Papua New Guinea a failed state says MP

MP Sam Basil says the findings of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) are a sign that Papua New Guinea is a “failed state”.

The PAC, of  which Basil is a member, has found that accountability and transparency in the use of public money within all but five of 1000 government agencies has collapsed.

Just one example is the 100 million kina ($A40 million) missing from the National Forest Authority, the body overseeing and administering logging permits for an industry labelled in 2006 “as 70 per cent illegal”.

PAC Chairman Timothy Bonga has said  he is shocked by the poor result.

“The whole functional system of the (Forest) Authority has collapsed and the original finding of the Auditor General that 100 million kina ($A40 million) simply disappeared and the (Forest) Authority had no ability to audit or trace these funds,” he said.

“In total, we have made inquiry into 1000 agencies, each examined from 2003 to 2008.

“The findings have shown that the management and accountability by our public servants and the government has collapsed miserably”.

Bonga said the Bank of PNG, Institute of Public Administration, Post PNG, Goroka Base Hospital and Alotau Hospital were the only government entities well-managed.

The worrying state of affairs came from a PAC inquiry examining 33 government departments, 25 subsidiary agencies including 19 provincial treasuries, 19 provincial governments over 400 districts, 19 urban authorities, 19 hospital boards, 116 statutory corporations and all trust accounts.

In September 2008, the PAC found most government department heads did not even know how to make the simplest of bank transactions.

In 2008, the PAC estimated that over the past 10 years more than a $1 billion kina ($A400 million) had gone missing from PNG finance coffers.

Bail for Chinese murder suspects a disgrace – but not a surprise

The ugly face of corruption and the power and influence of the Chinese mafia was clearly on display in Port Moresby on Friday as Magistrate Fred Tomo granted bail to two Chinese men accussed of the shooting and attempted murder of businessman Jason Tan on January 2nd this year.

The two Chinese, Chanjiang Gao and Xue Zhufu, were released on bail of just K2,000 each despite the facts of the case which include that neither man can speak English or Tok Pisin, one is unemployed, both were arrested close to the scene of the attempted murder, both were in the vehicle from the crime scene, and they were in possession of guns, one of which was unlicensed, black face masks and gloves and false number plates.

The two Chinese suspects have been released

Clearly it is highly likely that both men will now disappear from sight and it is very unlikely that either will ever appear in court again. No wonder the National newspaper reported they were “beaming with happiness and making thumbs up signs” when coming out of court.

Both Magistrate Fred Tomo, who granted the two men bail despite the overwhelming evidence against them, the flight risk and the seriousness of the charges; and the police investigating the case who apparently have done little to advance the prosecution over the last six weeks should be forced to explain themselves.

When Mr Tan was shot at on January 2nd and the two Chinese arrested, we all expected that the Chinese mafia would ensure that justice would NOT be done. Mr Tomo and the police it seems have proved us all correct.

Controversy over LNG project another symptom of corruption

While major resource projects continue to extract millions of dollars of oil and minerals from the ground, life for ordinary Papua New Guineans just gets worse and energy giant ExxonMobil’s new liquified natural gas project looks set to continue the trend .

Already work has been suspended on the gas liquefaction plant in Port Moresby after four local villagers were killed in a tribal dispute and extra police and troops are being rushed to the Southern Highlands to quell tribal violence at that end of the project.

With rising maternal mortality rates; increasing poverty and only 45% of children finishing primary school it seems corruption will ensure this latest large-scale projects will only benefit the rich – as Al Jazeerah reports in this new video.

Spread of Cholera a symptom of corruption

The United Nations has reported that the Cholera crisis in Papua New Guinea is going from bad to worse as health officials and non government organizations still struggle to cope without adequate government funding. The government’s failure to contain the outbreak and provide promised funding is just one more example of the endemic corruption that is destroying the nation.

IRIN: Cholera continues to spread in Papua New Guinea (PNG), where government health officials are now describing the disease as a major national public health concern.

“Things are going from bad to worse,” Victor Golpak, the government’s national response coordinator for cholera, told IRIN on 5 February. 

“This is now a national public health concern. We cannot ignore it any longer,” he said.

Since the first case was reported in August 2009, more than 2,000 cases have been confirmed nationwide, including 577 in Morabe Province, 885 in Madang and 602 East Sepik Province, the country’s National Department of Health reports. 

As of 5 February, 45 people have died.

Much of Momase is now affected. 

There have also been single cases reported in the country’s Eastern Highlands Province, as well as the capital, Port Moresby, in late January. 

“The disease is very much mobile,” Golpak said. “Tragically, the government has not woken up to this fact yet,” he said, referring to a lack of funding so far to curtail its spread. 



On the move

Cholera was first detected in Morobe Province, and a national response team was set up by the Department of Health, supported by the National Disaster Response Centre, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international partners. 

In October 2009, cholera was detected in the northern province of Madang, followed by another outbreak in East Sepik in November.

Despite that, resources to curtail the disease’s spread are in short supply. 

Of particular concern is the situation in East Sepik, with cholera cases reported in Wewak, Angoram and Ambunti districts, as well as around Murik Lake – the home of Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. 

There, provincial health authorities have joined forces with staff from Oxfam New Zealand, Save the Children PNG, WHO, and Médecins Sans Frontières, to help contain the disease’s spread. 

Provincial health officials, together with NGO partners, have set up cholera treatment centres in affected districts, but time is of the essence, aid workers say. 

Of the 602 cases treated thus far in East Sepik, there have been 16 deaths, Oxfam said on 4 February.

The Sepik river is used for bathing and drinking water: Photo David Swanson

“We are getting more reports of deaths coming in from the rural areas that we have yet to confirm,” said Andrew Rankin, Oxfam’s Sepik programme manager, who also described the situation around Murik Lake as particularly bad.

Clean water at a premium

According to health experts, cholera, an acute intestinal infection, is fuelled largely by poor sanitation practices and inadequate access to safe drinking water. 

About 58 percent of the country’s six million inhabitants do not have access to safe drinking water, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) reports. 

“People paddle for miles to fetch water. There is hardly any fresh and safe water around,” Rankin said. 

Although water tanks, buckets and other essential items have been distributed to affected communities, they are useless without any rain. 

Many residents continue to use water from the Sepik river – PNG’s second largest and a primary source of water for both drinking and washing. 

In November, WHO confirmed large traces of the bacteria vibrio cholerae in the river. 

“We found cholera in the water in more than one location and the bacterial results were very high,” Daniel Bleed, an epidemiologist with WHO, told IRIN at the time.

But even more worrying now is how to curtail the disease’s spread – and not just along the Sepik river. 

“Madang and Morabe also have big river systems, but we have yet to test the water there,” Golpak noted.

Resources lacking

On the ground, Sibauk Bieb, the operations coordinator for the government’s cholera task force in Madang, says time is running out to stop the spread. 

With resources largely depleted, and unable to pay his own staff, he is appealing directly to international donors for help. 

“What other choice do I have?” Bieb asked reluctantly. “I continue to make representations to the government at the provincial and national level, but so far no funding is forthcoming. We need help and we need help now.”

In September, cholera was declared a public health emergency by the government, which committed more than US$4 million to combat its spread. 

As of 5 February, however, just US$900,000 had been released nationwide, leaving provincial authorities and NGOs struggling to cope.

Corruption in PNG police rampant says long serving cop

By SIMON ERORO

“Yes, there is corruption rampant within our police force,” says John Mombre. He is a longtime policeman and like many of his colleagues, they continue to uphold the integrity of the profession they were trained for.

“Many of us (policemen) allow our personal emotions to make decisions which in many instances are unnecessary. 
“We arrest someone with charges of obstruction of duty…just because he or she wants to state his or her reasons, what occurs does not define the whole scenario”.

Corruption is a global phenomenon that is eating away at the very fabric of our society. 
Literally every policeman must be challenged to shirk the “who cares” attitude and fight the menace of corruption the way individuals who have successfully done, goaded on as they were by the courage of their convictions to avoid taking things lying down.
“As we deal with major corruption we must avoid petty corruption. As the saying goes, to cook a big fish well you must know how to cook a small one.”

Mr Mombre went on to say that 99 per cent of policemen who breach traffic rules in PNG do not get arrested.
He said this was for mere traffic rules like putting on your seat belts and blinkers to show the direction you are turning. “Anyone else does it…gets arrested,” he said.

He said many charges for obstruction of police duty are completely irrelevant. “Look at the drunkard policemen with beers packed in their cars driving around…no one can imagine whether they can be arrested by another cop. 
“At the road blocks…many are out there performing honestly while a few are taking the road blocks as a chance to try their luck in getting a toea or two,” this officer said.
“In fear of being locked up…many decide to pull out a few notes which eventually works out well. This is corruption,” he said.

Welcome on a guided tour of Port Moresby’s Chinese underworld

Clement Kaupa

From high stakes gambling to designer drugs, high profile prostitution and the import of counterfeit products, the PNG underworld is being ruled by persons from a certain Asian nationality.

Beyond the alluring neon splash of Port Moresby’s glitzy night-life exists a murky underworld of illegal high-stakes gambling, subtle bribery, designer drugs and high-profile prostitution. These are no longer rumours; a reliable source with inside knowledge confirmed these highly illicit activities to be happening with blatant disregard for the laws of the land.

High class prostitutes from Asia are a key part of the underworld scene

The source, who wished anonymity (for apparent reasons), claimed these activities are perpetrated by resident persons from a single Asian nationality.The source said the high-stakes gambling and use of designer drugs referred to by them as the “bean” (a derivative of highly addictive manufactured drug Ecstasy) are somewhat restricted for their personal amusement (mostly due to affordability rather than moral conscience) but “bribery” and “high-profile prostitution” involving imported professional sex-workers are masterfully concealed and marketed to an appreciating demand in Papua New Guinea for fast money and promiscuous sex.

The bribery component, according to the source, is ingeniously incorporated into the mechanism of PNG’s own brand of the notorious “Black Market Dinau Moni”; a highly lucrative street money-lending scheme that operates purely on trust and the need for discretion. But the former deflects from the latter’s exorbitant interest rates (40%-50%) and rigid repayment schedule (1-2 weeks), zeroing in on the trust and discretion aspects alone.

Monies loaned out by these people are interest-free with no conditions attached apart from a subtle line “pay me back when you can”. The real shocker drops in the amounts loaned-out. According to the source, cold-hard cash from anywhere between K2000 to K20,000 (even more) are known to exchange hands at the ease and speed it takes to make a phone call. It does not end there; the source said an individual can owe these people excessive amounts in additional loans at any one time.

And only an “exotic hostess” (imported prostitute) possesses the savvy to pop the cork on the celebratory ‘bottle of bubbly’ with that ‘exact’ measure of finesse to ease the cloying air of embarrassment and uneasiness every time a transaction transpires, always in inconspicuous locations, which is usually a posh air-conditioned backroom of a club or upmarket restaurant (hotel rooms are considered too obvious for their comfort).

A startling number of high profile nationals are already entangled in the sticky-sweet web spawned through subtlety and deception. Short of disclosing names, the source implied the majority of these persons to be in strategic positions at executive levels of leading public and private institutions. Thus, the much hyped “on the payroll” phrase does have merit after-all. The source said these persons borrow their way into dual servitude and are no longer serving the interests of Papua New Guinea alone.

And that is one facet of the operation. Counterfeit products is another. The source said fake products are circulating in bulk but ingenuously saturated among genuine items throughout Papua New Guinea. What you think is the authentic Reebok or Red Joe Jean or Pall Mall cigarette might actually be a copy-cat version. “You can never know for sure,” the source said. According to the source, this specific Asian grouping are ideally suited to accomplish this feat because; “They have multitudes of unregistered small scale back-alley factories highly specialised in counterfeiting back in their home country; And they have an excellent nation-wide retail network developed over the years that is proving very efficient in the distribution and merchandising of counterfeit goods like no other”.

The source told of an individual of that nationality who had financed the counterfeiting, shipment and distribution of Pall Mall cigarettes a while back. According to the source, the estimated street retail value of one 20-foot container of cigarettes is K4.5 – K5 million. The source said the person managed to ship and fully distribute five capacity containers before word leaked-out and his operation was terminated. He walked away with somewhere between K15 million and K20 million, give or take a couple of thousands in bribery expenses.

But contrary to rising sentiments today that international crime syndicates are already operating in the country, given further credibility by the recent spate of attempted assassinations and organised kidnappings, the source believes Papua New Guinea is not faced with that menace yet. According to the source these are isolated one-off crimes that are commissioned by individuals rather than an organised mob. But the source conceded that the possibility is there because a network is already in place.
“It is only a matter of time and opportunity,” the source said