Politicians' grab power to misuse public money
11 March 2010
THE PNG PARLIAMENT has
weakened the investigative powers of the Ombudsman Commission and diluted politicians’ accountability
for spending government funds.
It has established a so-called 'parliamentary ombudsman committee' that will make inquiries of its own.
This removes the independent power of the Commission to investigate matters such as politicians’ and departmental heads’ travel and the disbursement of regional funds.
All the politicians in the House were in on the act, voting 83-0 to amend the section of the Constitution empowering the Commission to issue directives to ministers and heads of departments.
Section 27(4) allows the Ombudsman to issue directives to prevent payments from public funds to these officeholders if it feels there is impropriety.
In the past, the Commission has used this provision to stop MPs taking overseas trips when it felt the trips were a waste of public funds and has prevented the Finance Department issuing cheques if it felt the motives were political.
The Commission froze the RESI (Rehabilitation Education Sector Infrastructure) funds last year after allegations that millions of kina were misappropriated.
It has been alleged that RESI funds were misused and diverted away from Kerevat national high school, an issue covered extensively by PNG Attitude earlier this year.
Introducing the amendments as a private motion, Esa’ala MP Moses Maladina said section 27(4) had been used by the Ombudsman many times to stop cheques, thus preventing the implementation of government policy.
“We want to make it very clear that the action of the Ombudsman in issuing such directives is wrong,” he said.
Mr Maladina said there had been many physical confrontations between officers of the Ombudsman and PNG leaders at the international airport, as the ‘leaders’ sought to take trips that the Ombudsman considered inappropriate.
Let last year, an assassination attempt was made on the
life of the Chief Ombudsman, Chronox Manek.The gunmen have not been caught and no motive has been established.
The very country that had many dreams to achieve is now being controlled by pigs and dogs.
It is sure that the Constitution was drafted by a few wise men in the Constitutional Planning Committee (CPC) to contain the fast growing population.
They had foreseen what would happen in the future and they toured the country collecting people's views and drafted every provision in the Constitution.
The government must not capitalise on what's happening today and make amendments to the Constitution. One must not be made to maintain political power.
The people of PNG are more important than a few individuals claiming to be leaders when behind closed curtains, misappropriating public funds is becoming normal practice.
Posted by: Hemson Wia | 20 March 2024 at 02:37 AM
On 11 December last year three gunmen followed Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek to the gates of his home and shot at him.
The bullets missed killing him by few millimetres. No one has been caught. The assassins’ trail has gone cold.
I think these assassins are agents of what are called the "fat rats" who hole out in a Waigani cafe.
Many times these fat rats have attacked the integrity of the Ombudsman Commission and the rule of law that holds this nation together.
Just recently some big issues have been raised by the Commission, under the leadership of Mr Manek, against these fat rats.
Surprisingly and worryingly, there has been little to no reaction from members of parliament to this matter. Only the Commission is in the frontline fighting the battle to get PNG back on track.
At the same time these fat rats are looking for ways to dump the Ombudsman Commission.
The attempted assassination is a direct attack on this country's future, its attractiveness for investment and its reputation. It is an attack on the people of PNG.
Despite all this, we believe the Commission will keep fighting the battle till the justice prevails. The people are on your side.
Posted by: Joe Wasia | 15 March 2010 at 04:40 PM
Before Gough Whitlam shuffles off, it would be enlightening to get his comments on the rush to independence; does he still think it was such a wonderful idea?
Bob Middleton DASF 1966/1974
__________________________
I have in the past spoken with Mr Whitlam about this on a number of occasions, and he never expressed any regrets.
It is worth recalling that the McMahon Coalition Government made Andrew Peacock Minister for Territories in 1972, and he shepherded PNG towards self-government. The Whitlam Government was elected in late 1972 and self-government came a year later.
The act of PNG independence was a bipartisan matter in Australia.
Both Whitlam and Peacock are proud of what they accomplished, and have been duly honoured by the PNG Government in doing what they did.
From the 1960s, Australia had been under great pressure from the United Nations to decolonise PNG, and was well on the way to this goal when Whitlam became Prime Minister.
Australia's thinking was reinforced to some extent by civil strife in the Gazelle and Bougainville and the nascent Papua Besena movement.
Both major political groupings in Australia played significant roles in PNG's independence - and I have never read of any significant political figure in Australia arguing that independence came too soon.
It could just be that colonialism started too late! - KJ
Posted by: Bob Middleton | 15 March 2010 at 12:31 PM
I agree with Reg, Peter and Paul. I fear now PNG has already gone to the dogs. PNG is now like those banana republics we read about ... some of the South American countries of the 70s to 90s, where the state collapsed due to corrupt politics.
PNG needs a complete leadership change as Somare is too old and incompetent to rule PNG properly.
He has become a redundant leader for a country that deserves more than what the corrupt bunch are doing to it.
PNG is about to become a failed state. Watch out Australia. Welcome China.
Posted by: Buka Meri | 12 March 2010 at 01:09 PM
PNG is now on the verge of going to the dogs as Parliament just made the Ombudsman Commission a mere paper tiger. Here is what today's reality is in PNG now.
Parliament unfortunately has become dysfunctional. The opposition is powerless, the government is power hungry and is totally incompetent to govern PNG properly. The civil service is ineffective in its implementation of government policy.
The law cannot really protect the people's human rights. It is only for the rich men to buy protection at the people's expense. Crime is worsening, the law and order situation is not improving and there are no effective crime fighting strategies in place.
The constitution seems to be another useless piece of paper as it is not readily available to all and is not clearly understood by the people. The law enforcement and security agencies are all under-resourced, under-funded, under-manned and too demoralized to be able to effectively carry out their constitutional roles and operational responsibilities to the best of their capacity.
There does not seem to be any one key authority in place that can stand up to what the government is doing wrong. It is time for people power strategies to be put in place by civil society, and other concerned stakeholders of the public and community.
The PNG government has gone worse. It just makes stupid laws to keep itself in power. What is going to happen now is that more political abuses will follow in the next two and half years to the next elections in 2012.
More resources of the people will be squandered by the political elites and corrupt cronies of the ruling coalition.
If nothing is done quickly to educate this government, PNG risks a countrywide revolt. The people have suffered for many years while their halfwit politicians play silly games in Waigani and are running the country on a crisis basis.
Can Australia help here? Not really. It still has its head in the sand and has yet to see a potential national security threat on its doorstep. There are many ways to do something to stop what is happening in PNG, but I will not state them here for obvious reasons.
This may be history, but it still needs restating here in light of what is happening today in PNG.
The then Australian government made a stupid decision to wash its hands off PNG (when it was not even a united country) in 1975 to give that country away to its self-appointed simpleton leaders.
Governments have pillaged the country's resources in broad daylight with transnational corporations and special interests. The current regime is no exception and something must be done now to stop it.
Australia cannot help because its aid program has failed to make PNG a better managed independent country. I call on the Australian government and people to not waste any more of if its taxpayers' money on PNG.
One effective way is to immediately cut down Australian aid to PNG. There must be an increase in trade between PNG and Australia with a fair balance of trade in favour of PNG products. Failing this, China will fill in the gaps for what PNG perceives as not getting a fair deal from its mate down under.
More Australian taxpayers' money is not the solution here. What is needed is a complete regime change in 2012 'to throw the bast....s out of the Haus Tambaran. This evil house has become useless to safeguard the national interest of PNG.
The people must vote out the current mob and put in some real quality leaders in 2012. This would be a real sad ending for Somare who cannot now effectively run PNG and safeguard its national interests.
Can anyone hear our Grand Chief's swan song playing in the background? What a wasted 42 years of playing political games.
I'm just crying for my beloved country as I lament with my countrymen and women what the future now holds for our children and grand-children in the next generation.
Posted by: Reginald Renagi | 12 March 2010 at 10:04 AM
The only thing the politicians can do to save themselves is to change the constitution. Every amendment to the constitution is done to protect to politicians so they have money money in their pockets without being referred to the leadership tribunal. Nothing is done to protect the people whom they claim to represent.
If God can kill the whole population on the face of the earth to save eight good people, how many MPs do we have compared to about 5 million Papua New Guineans whom Christ died for. We cannot allow a handful of stupid to ruin the majority.
God have mercy on our Motherland, Papua New Guinea.
Posted by: Peter Warara | 12 March 2010 at 01:41 AM
The last dying kicks of PNG democracy are effectively being stamped out before our very eyes.
Those of us who have seen a young country on the edge of becoming great can only to shake our heads in disbelief. There is now no effective way of stopping the inevitable takeover of a dictator except by force. Who would have thought that in our own lifetime, we who have helped people come out of the Stone Age to enjoy the benefits of a modern way of life have now left them to be sidelined and almost totally ignored by their own leaders?
Australia will rue the day it sat on its hands and did nothing to help the PNG people prevent this from happening. DFAT, AusAID, their antecedents and all the Australian governments since the Second World War ended have effectively put their heads in the sand and ignored reality. Millions of words and thousands of reports that have kept Australian public servants in Canberra in permanent work for decades and yet have been as much use as the proverbial 'tits on a bull'. Millions of dollars in overseas aid have effectively been wasted on programs that have no long term ongoing planning and are merely window dressing and an excuse for almost total ineptitude and moribund inaction.
What does it take to get results out of Canberra? Clearly nothing. Its not possible to motivate a force field that exists on another planet.
No wonder the Indonesian President yesterday felt compelled to lecture our politicians as they sat in Parliament on matters affecting our own region. He at least can see that our leaders haven't got a clue about what to do.
Posted by: Paul Oates | 11 March 2010 at 11:41 AM