Papua New Guinea's 2014 school fee limits set by the National Eduation Board

Post-Courier, 08th January 2014

School fees for 2014 for public schools have been approved by the Papua New Guinea National Education Board.

Michael Tapo, ES

In a notice this week the Education secretary Michael Tapo announced that the National Education Board decided to increase the National Government’s tuition fee component by 10 per cent to further relieve parents of their difficulties in providing for their families in light of the devaluation of the kina and the high inflation rate.

For instance, in 2013 the National Education Board’s maximum fee limit for elementary prep to elementary two was K100. With the 10 per cent inflation this year, the total government contribution is K110.

Every child attending approved permitted schools will receive a one off payment of K100 and every disabled child will receive a one-off payment of K200.

The board also saw the importance of schools having a conducive learning environment and has agreed that schools with the approval of the provincial education boards can charge a fee of up to K200.Mr Tapo said no schools are allowed to charge more than K200.

Namah gives Kulunga 72 hrs to arrest Prime Minister

Post-Courier, 07th January, 2014

Oppositon Leader Belden Namah has given Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga a 72-hour ultimatum to execute the warrant of arrest on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill or face contempt of court.

Belden Namah, OL

Mr Namah called a media conference yesterday to express concerns over the failure by the Police Commissioner and the police force to execute the warrants of arrest on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, Treasurer Don Polye and Finance Minister James Marape. 
The warrants were issued by the Waigani Grade 5 Court in December. "The warrant that was issued on December 4, 2013, as a result of a formal complaint I laid with the Commissioner of Police alleging blatant abuse of official authority and illegal direction by the Prime Minister in directing payment (to a law firm named)."

"This I view as high level official corruption by the Prime Minister, his ministers and the departmental heads who together in my view have committed fraud on a similar scale to the NPF saga." He said when the complaint was laid, the Detective Chief Superintendent Mathew Damaru entered it on record in the police occurrence book, and was given the fraud crime report number 185 of 2013. He said as a result of that complaint, police through their investigations have concluded that these three gentlemen have a case to answer to.

Papua New Guinea PM, and 2 senior MPs face arrest

Three sets of warrants are out for the arrest of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, Treasurer Don Polye and Finance Minister James Marape.

Trio alleged to have facilitated the K71.8M payment

According to court documents given to the Post-Courier, the warrants were issued by the Waigani District Court in November last year on the complaint of a detective senior constable with the National Fraud and Anti Corruption Directorate, Robert Ewail.

To reinforce the earlier warrant, senior const Ewail has taken out another order from the same court in December, this one restraining his superiors and the Royal PNG Constabulary top brass, including the Police Commissioner from issuing formal, informal, written or verbal directives to prevent, delay or frustrate the execution of the warrant for arrest of the trio.

Source: Post Courier, 07/01/2014

University of Papua New Guinea students abuse Prominent Lawyer on a Facebook row

Martin Namarong, Monday, November 14, 2011

Ms Tiffany Twivvey of Twivey Lawyers has been at the center of a row on Facebook. 

The row began after a debate was started on facebook over the private matter of former Political Power figures.

Here are some names Human Resource Managers of any respectable company should be weary off. Donald John, Marlon Abau and Elias Kepa - all males who claim to be students at the University of Papua New Guinea. They basically had zero debating skills and sought to threaten and abuse Ms Twivvey and others over their opposition to views held by these three amigos.

After piling on the abuses on another commentator, they shift to Ms Twivvey after her pleas for decency. Notice how the three of them start of the thread like heroes and towards the end reveal themselves to be the cowards that they truly are. 

Let’s hope the University of Papua New Guinea deals with them appropriately and recover it’s tarnished image. Ms Twivey will be referring the matter to the University Disciplinary Council.

A simple ‘siki mangi’ aiming for Papua New Guinea’s prime minister post in 2017 elections

By Joe WASIA

Aims and visions of a person are the most driving factors that elevate him/her to higher altitude in life. That is, when a person sets his visions and aims right and work towards it, it comes to pass. Here is one of those gentlemen with such a great vision to climb up to Papua New Guinea’s top chief executive officer post.

Mr Yamo Waaarh

A simple ‘siki mangi’ with one of the contractor companies in PNG LNG Project targets the PNG’s top executive post in the coming 2017 National Elections.

Mr Yamo Waaarh a 34 year old from Ialibu Pangia electorate in Southern Highlands Province said he is confident that he will win his open electorate with big margin beating Peter O’Neil, the sitting MP and the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.

 Peter O’Neil and Mr Waaarh hail from the same Pangia electorate and they are born Southern Highlanders. They are from neighbouring tribes sharing same land boundaries. He said he will make it to the top despite his current personal status and opposing perceptions that people may have in him.

Many readers to this site reading the article may wonder how this simple ‘siki mangi’ aiming at the country’s high executive post. But remember, it is the aims and visions with right character and attitude that can do multitude beyond human understanding.

Money laundering and official corruption in Papua New Guinea has resulted in millions of kina loss

For many years millions of Papua New Guinea's monies have been lost through investment overseas. And they have been left unattended.

As revealed by Task Force Sweep according to an article by Kela Kapkora on PNG Attitude some K200 million of Papua New Guinea’s money has been invested in Australia by fat cats through corruption and money laundering.
It further stated that 67 people have been arrested so far by Sam Koim (inserted) and Task Force Sweep (TFS) and K170 million has been recovered in PNG and up north.

Now some people (especially their 'wantoks') are crying out loud through some media that TFS is putting every Papua New Guineans investing in Australia into same bucket when they are not supposed to be victimized. They use internet access to defend their friends on different websites and PNG's local newspapers.

Since investigations into those investments started, many of these investors are named and the cases are before the court. The investigations are aided by the Australian Federal Police into assets and bank accounts in Australia. Thanks to federal police and the government of Australia.

Those Papua New Guineans should simply leave this country for Aussie or elsewhere. They can't even appreciate the role of TFS like millions of Papua New Guineans and the neighbouring countries do.

Papua New Guinea went down to France (9-8) in World Cup Rugby League opening matach in England

ABC Sports

France will now be confident of reaching the quarter-finals, with three teams progressing from a group that also contains holders New Zealand and Samoa.

RLWC match at Craven Park, Hull

The French squad, ranked fourth in the world, is predominantly made up of Catalan Dragons players, with of 11 of the starting 13 coming from the Super League side, and it was Bosc who squirmed his way over the line from Eloi Pelissier's pass for the opening try, and the scorer added the conversion.

PNG rugby league team for WC 2013

Papua New Guinea, the only country in the world that has rugby league as its national sport, were playing some expansive rugby in blustery conditions and grabbed their first try through McDonald after consultation with the video referee.

Salford's Theo Fages had a try ruled out for France because of double movement, as his side went in at the interval with a narrow 6-4 lead.

The Kumuls, ranked sixth in the world, went ahead immediately after half-time, forcing a French error before Abavu scored in the corner following a well-constructed move.
Managed by former Wigan half-back Adrian Lam, Papua New Guinea were on top in the second period but were unable to convert their pressure into points.

A penalty from Bosc allowed France to draw level with 20 minutes to go, and Barthau's one-pointer on 65 minutes edged Richard Agar's side ahead. The Pacific nation could have won it with three minutes to go but Mead - who failed with all three kicks at goal - missed a penalty attempt from 25 metres out.

Principal of a Papua New Guinea's biggest law firm, Paul Paraka, was arrested

Post-Courier, 24th October 2013

Prominent lawyer Paul Paraka has been arrested and charged by police and the Task Force Sweep yesterday over fraud allegations involving senor ministers of the O'Neil Government.

Paul Paraka with his legal team

The principal of one of the country’s most prominent law firms, Paul Paraka Lawyers, which consists of 22 established branches around the country, was charged for multiple counts of fraud following months of investigations by Task Force Sweep.

The investigations were conducted into the law firm upon directions by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill on May 13 this year.
Mr Paraka was interviewed and charged with a total of 18 counts relating to an amount of K71.8 million.
He was charged with five counts of conspiracy to defraud under section 407(1)(b) of the Criminal Code Act, nine courts of stealing by false pretence under section 404(1)(a), two counts of money laundering under section 34(2)(a) and two counts of misappropriation under section 383(1)(a) of the Criminal Code Act.

Police said Mr Paraka was arrested in a dawn raid at Gavuone village, Kupiano, Central Province (about two and half hours drive from Port Moresby.)..

Enga transfers hospital to Sopas and replaces with new Highlands referal hospital

Governor Peter Ipatas

The Enga provincial government has announced the transfer of the Wabag Provincial Hospital to the former Seventh-Day Adventist Church-run health facility at Sopas.

Enga Governor Peter Ipatas told hospital staff and villagers after meeting with the provincial management teamand provincial executive council members last Friday that his government had made the decision to make way for the new hospital to be built at Aipus, near Wabag.

He said Sopas, where the Enga Nursing School would have its first intake of 40 students starting next year, would remain a district hospital for Wabag.
The new 150-bed hospital construction will start next year and cost more than K320 million to be delivered for opening in 2015, Ipatas said.

He said an American hospital designing and building consultant company would present the final touches on the plan to stakeholders next month.
He said according to plan, the new hospital would become a regional referral medical facility for the Highlands, including the gas-rich provinces of Hela and Southern Highlands.

Ipatas said the provincial hospital site would be turned into a commercial area, with the building of two warehouses and a number of supermarkets. Ipatas thanked the O’Neill Government for approving funding for the new hospital, particularly when health services in the country needed critical attention.

It is understood Ipatas and Prime Minister Peter O’Neill will travel to China to secure a loan for the hospital project next month.

Source: The National, Monday October 7th, 2013

Remarkable story: The nationalization of Ok Tedi Mining by the Papua New Guinea government

Professor Stephen Howes
Director of the Development Policy Centre

I WAS IN PORT MORESBY LAST WEEK for our third budget forum with PNG’s National Research Institute. The week was dominated by the PNG’s Government’s takeover of Ok Tedi and the Sustainable Development Program, which was front-page news for several days.

Stephen Howes

It is a critical but complex issue which I wrote about earlier this year (here and here). Though the subtleties and implications are manifold, a simple summary of what happened last week is that in a single day, Wednesday, legislation was introduced into and unanimously passed by the PNG parliament to give the PNG Government ownership of the country’s largest company, Ok Tedi Mining Limited, and control over the country’s second largest development organisation, the PNG Sustainable Development Program.

The short version of my argument is that, while the Government has achieved a stunning victory, it is quite possibly a temporary one, and it is an outcome which represents poor public policy and a setback to development in PNG. The long version follows below, starting at the beginning.

Background
The PNG Sustainable Development Program (SDP) was set up after BHP’s exit from the Ok Tedi mine in PNG’s Western Province just over a decade ago. Essentially, BHP wanted to shut down the mine, which had caused great environmental damage and become a reputational risk to the company. The PNG Government, however, wanted the mine to continue because it needed the tax revenue.