Marape Freeze's Wage for Politicians and Top Bureaucrats

Posted on PNG Loop

Prime Minister James Marape says there will not be any salary increases for politicians and senior public servants in the next few years until the PNG economy is back on track.

This will be his position as a member of the Salaries and Remuneration Committee (SRC).

Marape said this after being sworn in as member of the SRC today.

The official swearing-in ceremony of three new members of the Salaries and Remuneration Committee was held at Government House and signed off by Governor General Sir Bob Dadae.

They included Prime Minister Marape, Public Service Minister Wesley Nukundj and Deputy Secretary Policy & Reforms of the Department of Personnel Management, William Hapipai.

Following the signing, Prime Minister Marape announced that his contribution to the committee will be to restrain increases to Members of Parliament and public sector leaders given the current state of the economy.

He said if he had it his way, he would give a 20 percent pay cut.

“I’m not looking to participate in a discussion for an increase, we are already paid quite substantially high, relatively speaking, to the rest of the public service and the public service structure. So pay increase is not in the interest for me as a member to the committee, but trying to balance so that no one is paid much higher,” clarified Marape.

Marape said they will also look to find a balance to avoid huge discrepancies in the pay structure.

“But more importantly there is a huge discrepancy, some are earning top range salaries and some are below and these are leaders we need to give them rightful respect but I think all salaries should be paid at almost an equal level right across,” he said.

“This is something that I’ll be contributing to this very important forum along with the Public Service Minister who is set and ready to go to ensure there is a balance and harmony in the various pay structures that we have.”

The Salaries and Remuneration Committee is the only constitutional body that determines and authorises the different levels of salaries and benefits to all public sector leaders.

It is comprised of:

-The Speaker of Parliament (Job Pomat) and his nominee Deputy Speaker, Jeffrey Komal
-The Prime Minister, James Marape, and his nominee Public Service Minister, Wesley Nukundj
-Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika and his nominee Justice Stephen Kassman
-Opposition Leader Patrick Pruaitch and his nominee (Shadow Treasurer, Ian Ling-Stuckey)
-Secretary of the Department of Personnel Management Taies Sansan and her nominee William Hapipai
-Secretary of the Department of Labour and his nominee

PRIME MINISTER MARAPE URGES OIL SEARCH TO PAY TAX

For Release: Monday, 15 July 2019 - PNG Mineral Resources Update

Prime Minister Hon. James Marape, MP has urged Oil Search to pay its fair share of tax due to the Government and people of Papua New Guinea.

Mr Marape was speaking at the occasion to mark the 90th anniversary of Oil Search operations in the country last week.

He said Oil Search and PNG Government have been sharing this journey for a long time since PNG gained independence in 1975.

“I like to believe that PNG governments in the past and present have had quite a significant input into what Oil Search is today and without that support, Oil Search shares will still be pegging along the same track as Santos and many of the companies operating in the country.

“I want to pay my respects to the landowners of the entire areas in which Oil Search has operated since 1929, some of them here tonight, me included.

“But as we sit in the porch, affluent modern 21st century environment, tossing to the occasion lest we forget the tribesmen and women whose territory we operate in are still living a life of the 19th century,” said Prime Minister Marape.

He urged Oil Search and other companies in the oil and mining industry to have the landowners involved in the downstream processing of their resources.

“I ask us to focus on them as we move into the future and Oil Search and your peers in the industry is for you to respect our laws, policies and regulations we’ve had in the past, exist today and further configuration of laws and policies we all make, so that our people, shareholders in the industry can benefit.

“They are the shareholders in this country but are still lacking behind into the 21st century.

“We saw life, as Oil Search started in 1929 it was just manual labour operation and moved from that era into digital age of operation in 2019.

“We will celebrate 100 years of Oil Search in 2029. I may never be a politician in 2029 but I want to lead this country far better almost equivalent to most of Oil Search and Exxon Mobil shareholders who live better life. I want to lift the life of PNG citizens to live the same life they lived.

“For every time; you still live in all the licences that you hold; deserves a same life you live in Port Moresby. A life where easy access to medicine is there for them; life where better school not just school and free education but school with quality interventions; life where when traveling on sealed roads; life where electricity is in the houses and homes,” said Prime Minister Marape.

He also thanked Oil Search for many of their interventions in communities where it operates, but placed on record that is really not its core mandate.

“You shouldn’t be doing that, you are doing that out of generosity and heart and obligations because you are living in those environments.

“So going into the future we will not be asking much of you in terms of community service obligations but we will be asking you to pay your fair share of tax.

“We will be asking you and others in the industry for a greater participation in downstream processing; we will be asking you for clearer better definition of what local content is.

“So that together as we celebrate 100 years of your existence in our country and your country; together we can show better pictures than kids going to hospitals that are amended by doctors and medicines lacking behind.

“That’s the story I want to tell you in 2029 and I’m sad but it’s not your business it’s my business and I’m appealing to the consensus of government, what you saw up there are my tribesmen and women,’’ he said.

Prime Minister Marape also told those present that from the hinterlands of Southern Highlands to the floors of Kikori plains and right down to Port Moresby, the stories are similar right across the country.

“I just came back from Ok Tedi, not so long ago and people are still behind. In a village called Mingerum from 1971-1976, they lived in the face of Ok Tedi but the story is still the same.

“They still are way behind and so our Government is in the business of ensuring that we don’t harm our investors but we work in greater partnerships to ensure that these people are still not left behind but lifted up so we can share in the profits that terminate from the land of PNG.

“When PNG is healthy, when no child is left behind, your dividend flow to your shareholders will continue to flow in huge abundance.

“We don’t want to run the risk and danger of living majority behind and few are affluent and seeking better for their kids.

“’For those who are left behind, their children will haunt the memories and will haunt our future and that is the challenge we face about giving opportunity to those out there to celebrate life.

“Most of them are not your fault but as the Government, we have been doing business over the years. So we are in the process of making those corrections so that companies like Oil Search and Exxon Mobil are not burden to community obligations. However, the Government seem to be doing better to these people that is why we are still in the business.

“So tonight, as we celebrate the 90 years of Oil Search, lest we forget that my country and our people are still struggling.

“Let us rally in our corporate conscious, let us rally in our Government conscious, lift them all so together with you and me when we celebrate 100 years; the story can be much better for 8 million shareholders of this country.”

Police to report on tribal fight

Posted by The National

THE police force is preparing a report to present to Prime Minister James Marape to address ongoing tribal fighting in Hela, Police Minister Bryan Kramer says.
Kramer, acting deputy commissioner David Manning and special service division director acting Chief Supt Julius Tasion went on a two-day, fact-finding trip to Karida village in Hela along with Hela Governor Philip Undialu to prepare a report for a government response to last Monday’s massacre of 16 women and two infants.
“You all know each other and who is involved. We are here to go back, do report to solve this tribal fight in the long term. The arm of the Government is long, so I call on these suspects to surrender,” Kramer said.
“Don’t think that government will not search for you in the jungles. It is not hard for the government to search for you. We can use technology to search for you. I’m here to find out how to deploy manpower (police and soldiers) and logistics (vehicles, communications etc to search for the suspects).
“I know they have escaped to the other places. I’m calling on the men not to retaliate because killings will continue. And when killings continue, then women and children become victims just like this.
“I heard that this fighting started in 2006 and is still on going and killings have been going on. But this is the first time to killing women and children.”
Kramer said they were in Karida because Marape had directed them to go to Tari to assure the people that the government was committed to addressing the issues.

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/police-to-report-on-tribal-fight/

Hela to track down killers of mothers, infants

Posted by The National

HELA administrator William Bando says they will support the national government track down the killers of 16 women and two infants at Karida village last Monday.
“We have prayed, had mediation and conducted awareness – to no avail to give peace a chance. So it’s up to the national government to deal with the killers. You can do and use whatever means to track down these killers,” Bando said.
He said when the killing at Munima was six, in retaliation 16 women and two infants were chopped up at Karida.
“It was horrific, especially considering that they were innocent, according to reports.
“So the provincial law and order committee through the enabling Act – the intergroup Tribal Fighting Act – declared Tagali and Hayapuga local level governments as fighting zones.”
The committee also visited the area after the last Monday’s massacre and a 20-man security force are now camping at the Munima Community School. Extra manpower has been requested through PNG Defence Force commander and approval has been granted.
“We want to review the security arrangement with ExxonMobil where we want MS 9 (Tari-based mobile squad) and provincial-based police officers to be deployed to the LNG site on rotational basis,” Bando said.
He said they also wanted ExxonMobil and Oil Search Ltd to build police barracks at Komo and Hides through infrastructure tax credit funds.
“We also want them to build a PNG Defence Force Infantry battalion near Tari town, possibly at the new Hawa Prison. If they can build the multi-million kina National Sports Stadium and so a multi-million kina renovation of the Pineapple Building (Sir Manasupe Haus ) in Port Moresby, there is no reason why they can’t build these infrastructures in the Hela province that host their operations.”
Bando said that when briefing Police Minister Bryan Kramer, acting deputy commissioner David Manning, special service division director acting Chief Supt Julius Tasion and Hela Governor Philip Undialu in Tari on Saturday.
Kramer had led a delegation on a fact-finding two-day trip to Karida village on Friday to prepare a report for the government to respond to the massacre.

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/hela-to-track-down-killers-of-mothers-infants/

Kramer, top cops in Hela’s terror zone

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK - The National

Karida village elder Hokoko Minapa (right) in the Tagali Local Level Government of Hela, explains to Police Minister Bryan Kramer (left) and Hela Governor Philip Undialu that they will not retaliate but let police deal with the killings of 16 women and two infants last week.

A GRIEVING father says his tribesmen will not take revenge but allow police and the government to deal with the killers of his wife and children.
Alili Urr, who lost his mother, wife, a child and nine other immediate relatives in the massacre of 16 mothers and two infants at Karida village in the Tagali local level government area of Hela last Monday, said that they would cooperate with the government to solve the matter.
“The dead children and the mothers’ spirits are in heaven and praying for peace. These are Sunday schoolchildren and their mothers are prayer warriors,” Urr said.
“This place has never experienced such violence, we usually live in peace with our family.
“The fight is on the other side in Munima village. How it spilt to here is a mystery.
“I’m calling on the provincial government to get all of us to a neutral area and ask why have these killings gone on like this?
“If you also can relocate us to a care centre and feed us with rations. We, the remaining 500 villagers, need to be relocated because we will not stay here.
“The Munima will still come and kill us. Now we want a unit of police or soldiers to be here.”
Another survivor, Andrew Halu, said that he was sleeping in the men’s house and it was day break last Monday (June 8).
“My wife and four children were sleeping in the family house. When I outside I saw the family house burning.
“My wife was chopped and she is now admitted at the intensive care unit at the Tari hospital. But all four of my children were slaughtered. I was chopped in the arm while I was escaping,” Halu said.
A village leader Hokoko Minapa said there had been no fight like last week’s.
“My people can retaliate. But I said no,” he said.
“The government will do that for us. We will wait for the government action.”

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/grieving-man-said-no-to-revenge/