William Duma and the Manu Manu Land Scandal: The Full Story

...John Griffin QC, drew the exact opposite conclusion to the RPNGC’s high command. While it did not have the power to subpoena records and witnesses, it was able to make one firm conclusion. Criminality was at play. The only question it could not answer with 100% clarity, who are the defendants that should be in the dock. Strap in, as...

Fabian Pok: Leadership Tribunal Material

This man should not be in charge of the nation’s petroleum and energy wealth. That is the only conclusion a reasonable person could draw after a careful consideration of Dr Fabian Pok’s political career to date. Too strong a words? You decide. Dr Pok has been: Condemned by the Commission of Inquiry into the National Provident Fund. Based off an...

Chris Haiveta: A Slippery Fish?

UPDATE: A new endnote was added to this report on 20 October 2020. Sandline International – a British mercenary firm – planned to use heat seeking missiles and other heavy-duty armaments on Bougainville. It would almost certainly have been a bloodbath, with major civilian casualties. So a mine could be reopened. Only unprecedented social mobilisation by the people, and a...

PNGSDP/Cloudy Bay Scandal Blown Wide Open

On 23 April Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) – a not-for-profit entity set up in 2002 to manage revenues from the Ok Tedi mine – issued a press release. It contained stunning allegations relating to its former subsidiary, Cloudy Bay Sustainable Forestry Ltd. Purchased in 2007 from the Constantinou Group, Cloudy Bay held a timber permit over 149,000...

The Yama Files Part V: The Tale of 10 Supreme Court Judges

Petition to investigate outlaw organisation and its management

...John Dege refused. On 18 November 2013, the NHC’s Managing Director John Dege informed Vaki Vailala the offer was cancelled. In evidence deposed to the National Court of Papua New Guinea, John Dege justified this decision arguing that Vailala was an illegal tenant, a rent defaulter, and had refused previous offers to purchase the property. Justice Canning rejected all three...

Taking from the poor to feed the rich: NHC and John Dege (Part III)

Taking from the poor to feed the rich: NHC and John Dege (Part II)

Taking from the poor to feed the rich: NHC and John Dege (Part I)

Trade Union Congress ‘Dysfunctional’, Court Claims

...no longer have the mandate they were given at the last Delegates Conference in 2011 to hold onto those positions. There is no cure for extension of their tenures under the Constitution and Rules of the PNGTUC except by following the process of electing office bearers thereunder. Justice David also raised queries over John Paska the incumbent General Secretary: John...

Whistleblower dumped by oil and gas industry

John Akar is a dogged whistleblower from Angoram in East Sepik Province. He twice exposed systematic breaches of immigration and labour laws by foreign companies working in Papua New Guinea’s booming oil and gas industry. Akar claims his career has been ruined as a result. John Akar before he was made redundant by HAES Two Oil Search contractors, High Arctic...

Serious questions over Collingwood Bay logging

There are many more questions than answers over a controversial logging project at Collingwood Bay in Northern Province. The logging company, Northern Forest Products Limited, started operations in 2017 and currently has some 5,300 cubic metres of logs stockpiled at Wanigela awaiting export to China, according to its export permit application. Northern Forest Products Limited says the logging operation has...

The Wartoto crime spree remembered

Over a number of years the state’s coffers were looted by Eremas Wartoto, with help from senior politicians and public officials. The money fuelled a jet-setting lifestyle, luxury properties in Australia, and Wartoto’s numerous businesses, at home and abroad. The National Alliance stalwart was sentenced to 10 years prison with hard labour for his crimes. Bomana Jail Commander Haraha Kiddy...

John Pundari

Last year, 2017, John Pundari celebrated three significant milestones: his fiftieth birthday; twenty-five years since his first election to Parliament; and five years as Minister for the Environment, Conservation and Climate Change. In this Profile, PNGi examines his career as both a politician and a businessman. John Thomas Pundari was born on the 7th of January 1967. He first entered...

Rejoice! National Housing Estates Limited Is No More

...wind NHEL up. Notably its Directors have been “terminated forthwith”, that includes Kevin Ahipum, Michael Barobe, Luke Karepe and John Witne. The remaining staff will be absorbed back into the NHC. At least some sanity has prevailed, with the government deciding to liquidate the company and reabsorb its functions back into the NHC. Of course, we dont know the motivations...

Climate hypocrisy?

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for the Environment, Conservation and Climate Change, John Pundari, was in Germany last month for the COP23 Climate Change talks, where he urged countries to uphold their climate change promises under the Paris Agreement. Pundari was leading the PNG delegation in Bonn, a role he has become accustomed to having attended numerous international climate conferences as...

K100 for Prime Waigani Land

...figure Labi Amaiu. Labi is currently trying to reclaim the seat of Moresby North East in the National Court – portion 1564 is situated within the Moresby North East electorate – which he lost to John Kaupa in the 2017 elections. He has denied any links to Macata. Image: When MP for Moresby North East, Labi Amaiu denied ties to...

What does public service really mean in PNG?

...The seven new companies registered by John Pundari since February 2014. In an earlier series of investigative reports, PNGi exposed the substantial business network the current Prime Minister has nurtured over the past decades; it is a model that it seems others are following. John Pundari’s seven new businesses are not, after all, the only ones he owns. In total...

Did the Lands Sec grant six leases to himself?

...the records of Auto Care Limited where he owns 15% of the shares and Yumi Traders Limited, where he owns 25% of the company. Nazar Hamer Babu Sa[b]john is also a director in N.H. Trading Limited. He was previously also a shareholder in the same company. Again, in the records of N.H. Trading, Mr Sa[b]john uses the address P.O. Box...

PM’s Right Hand Man in Gabutu Palace Bonanza

...blog, ‘O’Neill backs up his lies with extreme violence,’ public statement, 31 July 2017, accessed on 2 September 2017 [2] In August 2017, the new housing Minister John Kaupa directed a major audit to be done by the office of the Auditor-General of both NHC and NHEL. “They are numerous court proceedings against NHC, and too many investigations ongoing that...

Profiting from sickness

In Australia average life expectancy is 83, in Vanuatu it is 72, the Solomon Islands dips down slightly to 69, while in Papua New Guinea it is just 62.9. To put this in perspective, Papua New Guinea lies at the worst end of Sub-Saharan Africa. No other Pacific nation is in this league. The streets of the nation are strewn...

PM stake in Govt contractor hidden for 5 years

The Midas Touch: Part 3

In tandem with his political career, Peter O’Neill has built an extensive business empire with interests in almost every sector of the economy and assets worth many hundreds of millions of Kina. The Midas Touch is an in-depth investigation by PNGi into the Prime Minister’s business empire and how it has been interwoven with his political career. The Midas Touch...

Duma’s hidden hand in K3 billion development

Minister for State Enterprises, William Duma, was suspended from government in February this year, after it was alleged he had a beneficial interest in a lucrative land deal made with Kumul Consolidated Holdings.[1] Peter O’Neill ordered an administrative inquiry into the affair, led by John Griffin QC.[2] In a PNGi exclusive, we reveal the testimony of a senior Paga Hill...