Corruption in PNG
Papua New Guinea is one of the weallthiest countries in the world. It has huge mineral resources: copper, gold, silver, nickel, cobalt and many others. Oil and natural gas were discovered as well. PNG's woods are full of high quality tropical timber.
Although the country is rich, most people in Papua New Guinea are extremely poor and suffer from unsufficient healthcare, bad lodging, poor education and more. This is due to the never ending greed of the majority of PNG's political class who steal the country's richness and bring the profit abroad .... to Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong etc. .
The actual O'Neill government tries to fight corruption in PNG. But it is not sure if they are able to accomplish this giant task...this perhaps also due to corruption.
Brave people from PNG fight in the internet to unmask corruption and to improve life in PNG.
Please read here documents that give evidence on...
10.05.2012
Source: PNG Attitude
Task Force Sweep says PNG is a corrupt 'mobocracy'
EOIN BLACKWELL
AAP PAPUA NEW GUINEA CORRESPONDENT
CORRUPTION IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA's government departments has become institutionalised, where illegality and secrecy is sanctioned to the extent that the nation is now a "mobocracy".
That's what the government of PNG has been told by its corruption watchdog, Task Force Sweep, which today handed its final report on its seven-month investigation into malpractice across government agencies.
"Generally our investigations have revealed a very frightening trend of corruption in this country," taskforce chairman Sam Koim said.
"The level of corruption has migrated from sporadic to systematic and now to institutionalisation, where government institutions are dominated by corrupt people who orchestrate corruption using lawful authorities.
"Institutions that are supposed to practice openness and provide check and balance are now becoming a secrecy haven, where they sanction illegality and secrecy."
Describing corrupt officials as a mob, Mr Koim said they had turned PNG from a constitutional democracy into a mobocracy.
The full report has yet to be made public, but Mr Koim said 20 politicians will be referred to the ombudsman commission for further investigation, while 24 public servants had been suspended for "facilitating or benefiting from corruption".
Mr Koim also said more than 10 lawyers will be referred to the PNG law society for investigation.
Please read also the article below published in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2011:
PNG exposed as 'dysfunctional blob'
by Philip Dorling
September 4, 2011
Philip Dorling
PAPUA NEW GUINEA is trapped in ''Ponzi politics'' being practised by deeply corrupt politicians who have enriched themselves on resource revenue and Australian aid , according to US diplomatic reports.
Australian government officials are reported as saying generational change in PNG politics following the departure of founding father and former prime minister Sir Michael Somare was a ''false hope'', and the PNG government was a ''totally dysfunctional blob''.
The damning assessments of political and economic life in Australia's nearest neighbour are contained in confidential US embassy cables leaked to WikiLeaks.
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In a November 2008 briefing, the US embassy in Port Moresby noted that resource revenues and Australian aid have served ''more to enrich the political elite than to provide social services or infrastructure. There are no large-scale local businessmen, but numerous politicians are relatively well off.''
PNG is Australia's largest recipient of foreign aid and in 2011-12 will receive more than $480 million from the country.
Anxious to avoid diplomatic offence, Australian government ministers and officials rarely talk openly about corruption and maladministration in PNG, preferring to speak of ''strengthening governance'' and helping ''institution building''.
However, the leaked cables from the US embassy in Port Moresby provide grim assessments of PNG's chaotic political system and failing public administration. In May 2007, in a cable titled ''Ponzi politics'', the US embassy presented a damning pen picture of PNG politics.
''Steeped in traditional magic and innocent of modern economies, PNG's citizens prove easy marks for Ponzi schemes which proliferate throughout the country,'' the embassy said. ''Now it's election time … and the politicians are dusting off their bottles of snake oil. Viewed from afar, or from a national perspective, it's an appalling spectacle of disregard for governance.''
It went on: ''If all politics is local, politics in PNG - with 830 languages, myriad cultures and thousands of clans - is Tip O'Neil (sic) on steroids … Though this government, and the current crop of leaders on the national scene, have presided over a steady, nationwide deterioration of services - closure of health centres and schools, collapse of effective policing and a steady rise in violent crime - little mention of this can be expected during the campaign to come.''
In the run up to the 2007 election, the US embassy reported that ''the pork has hit the fan'' as Sir Michael reallocated ministerial portfolios. One promoted minister was described as ''the government's chief bagman for the corrupt forestry industry''. A former health minister was ''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''.
The report gave a damning judgment on the Somare administration's commitment to law and order: ''The single most pressing problem facing PNG is the almost total collapse of the police force. So it is doubly disappointing that the effective [Police Minister Bire] Kimisopa was pushed aside. The portfolio has little control over expenditure. But his focus likely discomforted Somare and his cronies for the same reasons they worked to scuttle a large-scale Australian package which threatened to dramatically improve police performance.''
The leaked US cables are ambiguous about Sir Michael's financial interests and their effect on political decisions and public policy. However, they noted a ''strange'' shift in PNG government policy that potentially increased its financial exposure in legal action being taken by Bougainville residents against company Bougainville Copper. ''Given the way things are done here, the general suspicion is that PM Somare has been given a financial incentive to reverse the previous government's position on the case. Certainly, it would be very typical of Melanesia if what the government saw as in its nation's interest also redounded to the individual benefit of its leadership. It is worthy of note that Paul Nero (sic, Nerau), a plaintiff and the current PNG [consul-general] in Brisbane, is very much a Somare man.''
The US cables confirm that, privately, Australian officials have no illusions about the state of the PNG government. After a mid-2007 discussion on political and economic developments with Australian high commission staff in Port Moresby, the US embassy reported: ''One Australian analyst described generational change as a 'false hope', while other Australian officers described the PNG public service as a 'totally dysfunctional blob' that is great at planning but appalling at implementation.''
Speaking to the US embassy in September 2009, the then opposition leader and former prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta lamented the collapse of effective government decision-making.
''AusAID is out of control,'' he said. ''I don't mean that Australia is being naughty. What I mean is that, out of desperation over lack of government direction, they are funding projects of their own choosing. The government cannot truly be said to be in charge of how and where foreign assistance is spent.''
However, as an example of poorly planned Australian assistance, Sir Mekere cited money spent on infrastructure projects such as road-building, new schools and hospitals.
''Our problem is not a need for new infrastructure. At this point, we cannot even maintain the infrastructure we have.''
Following a long illness Sir Michael was removed from office, though he is still protesting that his ousting has been illegal. Peter O'Neill, who had served as treasurer in the Somare government, was elected Prime Minister by a parliamentary vote on August 2. He has declared his desire to ''restore open, honest governance''.
on 12.04.2012 the PNG Newspaper "Post-Courier" reported:
PNG investors eye Far North Queensland
PAPUA New Guinea residents are the largest foreign investors in the Far North of Australian (Cairns), according to the latest figures from the Registrar of Titles.
The Cairns Post reported yesterday that Papua New Guineans bought commercial, residential and other property worth $4.5 million (K9.58 million) out of $16 million (K34.09 million) of foreign purchases in the last financial year.
CBRE Cairns managing director Danny Betros said there had not been many large sales to PNG investors in recent times.
He said the last large sale was the $19 million three-storey office building at 120 Bunda St to a PNG consortium in July 2010. The building was bought by Mineral Resources Lihir Capital Ltd, a company that receives royalties from the $1 billion gold project on Lihir Island, and invests in property and other concerns on behalf of the community.
In May last year, a PNG family’s first foray into the Far North’s commercial property market was expected to be the start of further investments.
The newspaper said one Honale family bought the home of Channel 7 local news in Mulgrave Rd, Parramatta Park, for $3.2 million. Mr Betros said there were about 12 groups representing PNG investors active in the Far North. He said the mining boom was sparking interest by PNG investors in the Far North as well as because of its close proximity. It is understood a PNG consortium is also eyeing off one of the Cairns Central Business District’s largest office blocks, the Corporate Tower. Greg Wood of Knight Frank Cairns reportedly said interest in property in Cairns had dropped off following the political stability in PNG.
Mr Wood said he expected the number of Australians and others working in the PNG resources sector to start buying mainly residential properties in Cairns for their families.
The Far North’s lifestyle, attractive property prices and the resource boom is drawing investors from PNG as well as Western Australia and Darwin who are snapping up prestige waterfront homes and land in the elite Bluewater estate.
In February, investors from PNG called FNQ Hot Property Principal Nathan Shingles at 9am one day, inspected the Bluewater property and by 4pm had signed a contract.
Next on the list was the UK ($3.5 million), NZ ($2 million) and Japan ($1.9 million).
Other notable buyers were from the Czech Republic ($680,000), Greece ($530,000), Hong Kong ($491,470), Argentina ($490,000) and Malaysia ($394,300).
Hong Kong residents own the largest amount of land (1116ha) followed by Belgium (492ha), the UK (352ha), Japan (278ha) and China (91ha) while UK investors own the largest number of land parcels (257) followed by Japan (214), NZ (212) and PNG (101).
