O’Neill ready for loan inquiry

By JEFFREY ELAPA - The National

FORMER Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has told Parliament that he will be the first to testify before a Commission of Inquiry into the UBS loan saga.
O’Neill welcomed the tabling of the Ombudsman Commission report on the loan by acting Speaker of Parliament Jeffery Komal yesterday.
He said that he was not part of any wrong-doing and would be the first person to testify before the inquiry that Prime Minister James Marape had announced to establish to investigate the saga.
However, the report implicated that most officials in the chain of obtaining the loan had acted wrongly or illegaly and recommended they be referred to the leadership tribunal.
Among them are O’Neill, Marape, Chief secretary Isaac Lupari, Treasury secretary Dairi Vele and other government officials, including Philip Eludeme and Wapu Sonk.
O’Neill said the Oil Search saga was not new, it had been going on since the acquisition of Origin Mineral by Oil Search.
He said Oil Search was a small company but acquired all assets owned by Origin Mineral owned by the State, making Oil Search a big company in the country, meaning that it processed all the oil-producing and gas-producing assets in the country that was held on behalf of the State.
O’Neill was referred by two former State ministers whom he had sacked from his cabinet for not following NEC decisions, but then alleged that the UBS loan was illegal.
He said NEC decisions were not made by one person, but by ministers of the State based on advice from Government officials.
“I want to assure the prime minister that he did not do anything wrong by complying with the court order that the State needed to make repayments on loan and that’s why he made the payment to repay the loan that we got from UBS,” O’Neill said.
“This came about because we needed to buy back the shares that were mortgaged to the Arabs.
“We have done so, and then, of course, today we are in the situation where these complaints are referring some leaders for their actions that they have made.
“I welcome the prime minister’s commitment to an open, transparent, public inquiry. I will be the first one to testify in that inquiry, I will be the first one because I have done nothing wrong. I have not negotiated these loans with any official with the UBS.
“These negotiations were conducted by Treasury.
“On advice given by our officials, we went ahead and made a NEC decision and that is nothing wrong with that. But I want to ask the prime minister that this inquiry should extend beyond UBS, it extends even beyond, and it must go to the root cause of this particular action that we took and that is the loan we took in IPC. The Arabs’ loan the Somare-government got from a company that was not a publicly listed company.
“It has got no transparency, no visibility and that is the cause of the situation that gave rise to securing this loan we took to buy back.
“When you talk about taking back PNG, it’s about owning assets, it’s owning resources, ownership of our country and that is precisely what we did.
“The OSL shares given away or mortgaged by the previous government and I welcome the COI and it must extend into the IPC loan as well because that is where you will find corruption.”

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/oneill-ready-for-loan-inquiry/

OUR RESOURCES - THEIR PROFITS

Papua New Guinea treasurer calls for more benefits from LNG, mining projects

By Sonali Paul | Reuters 

Papua New Guinea’s new treasurer on Wednesday put Total SA, Exxon Mobil Corp , Newcrest Mining and their partners on notice that the country wants to extract more benefits from their gas and mining projects.

Treasurer Sam Basil said the country also needs better forecasts from Exxon and Total on the expected income flow from a $13 billion plan to double the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. Basil was appointed earlier this month by Prime Minister James Marape, who led a revolt against former prime minister Peter O’Neill in May.

France’s Total is leading the Papua LNG project, which will develop the Elk-Antelope gas fields to feed two new LNG production units to be sited at the PNG LNG plant, run by Exxon.

At the same time, Exxon and its partners plan to add a third new unit at PNG LNG, which will partly be fed by another new field, P’nyang.

Total recently reached an agreement with the government setting terms for its Papua LNG project, while Exxon is in the process of negotiating a separate agreement with the government for P’nyang.

Treasurer Basil said the projects should all be treated as one, rather than “under the cloak of separate joint ventures”.

“I am putting each of the project partners in all of these projects on notice that the concerns of our people must be addressed through dialogue and negotiations with the state and that we expect all parties to contribute to a fair and equitable outcome,” he said.

Exxon’s original $19 billion PNG LNG project is the biggest foreign investment in the country and crucial to the economy, but the plant has been a disappointing contributor since it started exporting LNG in 2014.

Last year’s earthquake which forced a shutdown of PNG LNG dented the government’s take from the project more than Exxon had expected it would. The 2019 budget had assumed that oil and gas sector revenue would fall by 9.4 pct from 2018, but it actually fell by 16.4 percent, Basil said.

He plans to ask the Treasury and Exxon to come up with new detailed forecasts of future cash flows from the project to the national and provincial governments and local landowners.

He also said the government would put on hold talks with the owners of the Wafi Golpu gold project, Newcrest and South Africa’s Harmony Gold, until the state negotiating team has talked to the Morobe provincial government about its aspirations for the project.

“Our future prosperity depends on delivering these projects and delivering them well. But we must now find a way to ensure that these major resource project agreements capture enough value to the state and to our people,” he said.

Exxon and Total were not immediately available to comment. Newcrest had no immediate comment.

Go to this link for more: https://ramumine.wordpress.com/2019/06/27/papua-new-guinea-treasurer-calls-for-more-benefits-from-lng-mining-projects/

Australia and PNG agree to extend contracts for Manus Island asylum seeker services

By Natalie Whiting - ABC News

The Australian and Papua New Guinea governments have agreed to a limited extension of the contracts to provide services to asylum seekers, before the PNG Government takes over.

The contracts for work on Manus Island were to expire at the end of the month.

Wednesday's agreement came after PNG Prime Minister James Marape called for the security contracts held by Paladin to be cancelled immediately.

The two governments released a joint statement saying they were committed to "ongoing cooperation to ensure quality and sustainable services are in place to support the health, welfare and safety of transferees".

The statement said the PNG Government intended to assume responsibility for service delivery and would contract local providers "through an open market competitive procurement process".

To allow time for that to happen and to ensure services are maintained, the governments have agreed to a limited extension of existing contract arrangements along with a review of those arrangements.

The statement said the transition would happen within the "quickest possible time" and then the Australian-held contracts would be terminated.

No time frames for the contract extensions or transition have been outlined.

PHOTO: Mr Marape called for the cancellation of Paladin's security contracts. (Supplied: PNG Prime Minister's Office)

The announcement came after a week of political disagreement.

After Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the $423 million security contract held by Paladin would likely be extended, the PNG Immigration Minister and then Mr Marape called for the contract to be terminated.

The awarding of the contract to Paladin is currently being investigated by Australia's auditor-general, though the Home Affairs Department has defended the arrangement.

Paladin has said it is unable to speak about the specifics on its contract on the island but in a statement the company has defended its work in the area.

"Paladin has an outstanding track record in the region as an ethical provider of security, safety, risk management, community engagement and garrison services with significant expertise in working in partnership with local communities," the statement reads.

"We have more than 4,500 employees across the Asia Pacific region and our partnership model is built on the participation, training and mentoring of local staff and landowners to achieve stability and prosperity.

"We employ a majority local workforce, buy local and ensure we become a valued part of the communities we operate in. "

PHOTO: An accommodation block, pictured under construction in 2017. (Supplied)

Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo told a Senate hearing in February the PNG Government was planning to take over responsibility for the services in October 2017, but in July that year decided it could not proceed because it was in caretaker mode ahead of an election.

PNG says local companies now have the capacity and expertise to provide security services on Manus Island and would like to see a transparent tender process introduced.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally said in a statement Labor "welcomes the fact an open market competitive procurement process will be undertaken for future contracts in PNG".

"Australia still has skin in the game and it is incumbent on Peter Dutton to ensure any future contracts in PNG are fit for purpose and ensure value for money if services are being funded by the Australian taxpayer," she said.

Asylum seekers who had been trying to reach Australia were first sent to PNG for offshore processing nearly six years ago.

They have been living in accommodation centres in the local community, which are guarded, since the detention centre was closed in late 2017.

Go to this link for more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-26/australia-and-png-agree-to-limited-extension-manus-contracts/11249702

5000 evacuated after PNG volcano erupts

Posted by Radio New Zealand

More than 5000 people have been evacuated after Mt Ulawun in Papua New Guinea's West New Britain province erupted yesterday.

The Post Courier reported Mt Ulawun, which straddles the boundary of East and West New Britain provinces started erupting at about 7am local time, spewing a tower of ash 13km into the air.

Nearby residents have spoken of the sky turning black, ash falling thick like rain, and flashes of lava being seen in the mountain's upper reaches.

A disaster response officer at Mt Ulawun said officials were caught off-guard by the eruption but moved people to safety in nearby Kabaya.

A shortage of vehicles reportedly hampered the movement of people to safety.

Air Niugini has cancelled all flights into Hoskins airport indefinitely following the eruption.

Lava flow has also reportedly cut off the New Britain Highway at three different locations.

Thousands of people live in the shadow of Ulawun, despite it being one of the most active volcanoes in the country.

Go to this link for more: https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/393025/5000-evacuated-after-png-volcano-erupts