Govt, donors set to hold talks                                                                                  The Government and international donors to PNG’s development are set to endorse and agree this week on a common set of principles, performance indicators and action plan on how best to spend aid money.
This will take place in Kavieng, New Ireland, where the third donor consultative forum between the PNG Government and donors will be held over the next three days.
Major donors to PNG are Australia, Japan, New Zealand, China, the United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the European Union.
Senior officials from relevant Government departments and agencies and local representatives of these donors will participate at the forum.
All parties are expected to endorse what is known as the localised core statement on aid effectiveness in accordance with the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness.
Under this declaration, recipient countries and donors are required to work harmoniously in spending aid money effectively in accordance with the host country and the government’s development needs and aspirations.
In PNG’s case, the key policy documents guiding its development priorities are the Medium Term Fiscal Strategy, the Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) and the Millennium Development Goals.

Tribal fighting affects public service                                                                 
By ISAAC NICHOLAS
THE culture of tribal fighting is starting to take root in the public service, Minister for Public Service Peter O’Neill said yesterday.
He said the system was too cumbersome with many heads of departments ending up in courts to resolve issues.
“This leads to the culture of tribal fighting in the public service causing instability,” he added.
He was referring to the current stand-off in Kundiawa between supporters of Joe Bal and Joe Kunda and the previous fight at the National Narcotics Bureau.
Mr O’Neill said this when announcing that he would be introducing amendments to the Public Service (Management) Act to address problems of appointments and acting appointments.
He said the public service structure had not adequately provided basic services and the Public Service (Management) Act was not living up to the standard the country deserves.
“The Government has directed us to amend the Public Service Management Act to try and resolve a number of problems including that of appointments and acting appointments,” he said.
Mr O’Neill said under the amendment the Public Service Commission’s functions would be further broadened to ensure that the Public Service Management Act was properly executed.
“We do not want to take issues out of courts but we want to exhaust the public service system, “ he pointed out.
He said there had been acting appointments for 3-4 years because of a lengthy court process and they were making amendments to improve the predicament they were going through.

 

NTB has not fared well: World Vision
By ENNIO KUBLE
Papua New Guinea is still among the seven countries highly burdened with tuberculosis (TB), a World Vision PNG report stated.The report said though the National TB programme (NTB) has existed for several years, it has not produced the desired results.The report said the programme had chronically under-achieved global and national targets of coverage and performance.
It said in the Western Pacific of the World Health Organisation’s administrative region, PNG was not faring well with more than 3,000 people dying each year from TB.“These are needless deaths even when TB is nearly 100% curable with relatively cost effective drugs,” the report stated.Next month the world will be observing the international TB Day with the action call to mobilise political and social commitment to contain the spread of TB.The report said this once-a-year event offered an unparalleled opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of TB in the country and the state of TB prevention and control efforts at national, regional and local levels. The report said Mar 24 will gather all people involved in the National Tuberculosis Programme, civil society groups engaged in fighting TB, TB-affected communities and any other group working to stop TB.This year’s global WHO slogan - I am stopping TB - offers the opportunity to showcase the successes of people in communities who are battling against TB.The regional WHO theme is - Focus on Laboratory, Focus on Quality.

TB kits out after standard treatment
North West Medical and Scientific Ltd may distribute its rapid test kits after meeting the standard treatment and management guidelines, according to the Health Department yesterday.
Health Secretary Dr Clement Malau said the technical divisions of his department with the National AIDS Council’s secretariat had to access and qualify the products for public use in accordance with the standard protocol management manual.
Dr Malau said set procedures had to be followed and satisfied before the products are introduced to the open market in the country.
He said once the Health Department was satisfied it could sign off the products to be in use and the supplier had to follow the normal bidding procedures to sell the products to the Health Department.
In the meantime, Dr Malau refrained North West Medical and Scientific Ltd from distributing the products to health facilities for public use.
Some of the products included HIV rapid test kits, tuberculosis test kits, pregnancy test kits, malaria test kits and syphilis test kits were among others.

Pandemonium at Gordon market
CHAOS reigned at the Gordon market as police destroyed the place sending sellers and by-standers fleeing for their life yesterday afternoon.
The incident happened around 5.30pm yesterday at the main car park inside the market premise before it spread to where the betel-nut sellers are located near the bus stop.
An eye-witness told The National yesterday that police numbering over 20 arrived at the market area around 5pm informing street vendors not to sell at the main car park area as this was reserved for the cars.
The policemen in a blue truck, believed to be new recruits allegedly tried to remove sellers sitting at the car park.
Eye-witness Neal Kidyala who lives at Tokarara said one of the policemen then kicked some can drinks.
The owner of the eskies protested and this led to the police firing tear gas guns into the crowds, while chasing people with pump action guns and M16s.
Mr. Kidyala said many sellers lost money after the tables with their betel-nuts, smoke packs and other items were thrown onto the ground in the melee.
He also said he lost several cartons of coke while filming the disaster that took place at the market with his camera.
Some tables were set on fire and one young girl claimed she lost nearly K1000 from her eskies with Coke drinks which were overturned and destroyed. Police left the scene after an hour.
 

Compensation is no justice to domestic and sexual violence
By MADELEINE AREK
COMPENSATION should not be used as a means of serving justice to victims of domestic and sexual violence, a senior police officer in Lae has said.
“When compensation is used, it downplays the seriousness of the offence and allows the offender to get away with committing a crime,” Sr Insp Noah Joseph said.
He said police throughout the country had been advised to treat family and sexual violence as criminal offences and not as family or civil matters.
Mr Joseph said rape, sexual assault, incest, pornography and petting were foreign to PNG culture and they were not only wrong morally but punishable crimes.
He was speaking at the opening of the Women and Children’s Support Centre at Angau Memorial Hospital last week.
Built at a cost of K100,000 with the help from Medecins sans Frontieres Amsterdam, the centre is located at the back of Angau hospital.
The vision for the centre, headed by Sr Anastasia Wakon and staffed by foreign and PNG professionals, is for all women, children and in some circumstances men, who have been victims of sexual or family violence, to have access to services that are caring, timely and free of charge.

Tkatchenko wants plastic bags banned
PNG Gardener Justin Tkatchenko wants plastic bags to be banned throughout Port Moresby as they are “causing an environmental disaster and making our city look like a rubbish dump”.
Mr Tkatchenko said he fully supported National Capital District (NCD) Governor Powes Parkop’s move to look into totally banning plastic bags in the city.
He said that the former minister for Environment and Conservation nearly made history by passing laws to ban plastic bags.
However, he questioned why these laws did not eventuate.
“Hopefully the new minister can implement these laws for the benefit of our environment and society,” he said yesterday.
Mr Tkatchenko urged city residents to change and keep the city clean of plastic bags, which were “turning our seas, rivers, creeks, drains, parks and cities into rubbish dumps”.

Trial date of Aussie’s murder rescheduled
By PETER MIVA
THE National Court in Lae has finally set a trial date for two young men charged with the 2005 murder of Australian Russel Green.
Justice Nicholas Kirriwom rescheduled the three-day trial yesterday for April 7 to 9.
The case was set as a plea matter last October but one of the accused Carl Arua Beni advised their lawyer Luke Vava from Paraka Lawyers that he had changed his mind.
His sudden turn forced Mr Vava to withdraw his services.
Beni and co-accused, Menos Duma Dong, are both indicted for the brutal murder of the expatriate at his Eriku home on Nov 9, 2005.
Beni, 18, of mixed Central and Chimbu parentage, was arrested on Dec 25, 2005, and Dong, 22, from Masaweng village, Finschhafen was arrested on Jan 6, last year.
A huge manhunt ensued after the Australian was murdered while he was attempting to ward off intruders who had scaled the fence of his home on the night of Nov 9, 2005.
A key female suspect was discharged from the murder charge in 2006 by the Lae District Court because of insufficient evidence to stand trial in the National Court.
The National Court has also listed 18 other criminal cases, each for hearing in Bulolo and Finschhafen.
Another Judge Justice Bernard Sakora is also expected to assist in criminal cases of the month.

School finally starts after four weeks of confusion in Hagen
MOUNT Hagen Park Secondary School is resuming classes for its 2008 academic year today after four weeks of confusion.
Principal Simon Opa informed parents yesterday at the school ground that the dispute over the headmaster’s position at the school was a matter before the courts to decide.
“It is important that our school children immediately start their classes in the new academic year in order to catch up with other schools in the country,” Mr Opa said.
He said that teachers who had been posted to the school this year should turn up today to take classes.
Mr Opa further pointed out that although the school was supposed to start last week, the ethnic clash and the confusion over the court case over who was in charge of the school forced a delay.

 

Classes continue despite unanswered pleas
By ALISON ANIS
CLASSES at New Erima Primary School in Gordon, Port Moresby, is continuing despite ‘unanswered pleas’ from the parents and the school board to the Department of Education to upgrade its deteriorating premises and build additional classrooms in place of the ones that got burned in March last year.
However, the students are kept in their classes until lunchtime and told to go home after that, because Eda Ranu had cut off the school’s water supply last December due to unpaid bills amounting to K22,600.
“Students have been greatly affected as a result because they have no access to drinking water and are unable to use toilets and instead resort to nearby bushes,” the members of the school board told The National on Monday.
“We have paid half the fee to Eda Ranu and were promised reconnection last Friday. Until they do it, we have to send children home,” they said.
On Monday the board requested Eda Ranu for reconnection. Eda Ranu was expected to respond by yesterday.

Polye backs climate office
MANY Papua New Guineans know very little about climate change and its effects and the establishment of the climate change office will create a lot of awareness about the issue, Kandep MP Don Polye said. He said this showed the Government was taking a meaningful and effective role in addressing the issue and reducing the impact of climate change. Many Papua New Guineans have very little, if any, understanding at all of climate change issues. The establishment of the office was a step in the right direction to create awareness among our people on the causes and effect of climate change, he said.

Goroka uni increases intake
THE University of Goroka has seen an increase of 100 students in this academic year. Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Michael Mel said this was because of the high interest from school leavers and post graduate candidates for further studies. The university had seen an increase in enrolments from 1,700 students last year to 1,800 students this year. Dr Mel said the administration is looking at expanding and increasing space at the institution and hopes to enrol more students over the next three to four years.

Dysentery under control
THERE is no outbreak of dysentery at the Salamaua High School, the Huon district administrator Tony Ase said. If there was, the Salamaua health centre would have reported the matter to his office. He said officers at the Salamau health centre had checked over the weekend and informed him that the news report was baseless. He said there was proper drinking water, negating the news reports that drinking water was drawn from a muddy swamp. The bore water was used for washing and cooking and it was not from the same source as the one used by villagers to make sago and washing, he said.

Landowners to take control
A LANDOWNER group in the Samarai-Murua electorate in Milne Bay province is looking at developing its forest instead of allowing foreigners to take control. Ronny Busia from West Suau and his kinsmen are in the process of forming a company to control the 60,000 hectares of virgin forest that belongs to them. Mr Busia said when foreign investors and companies went in to extract or log natural resources, they became careless. He said Milne Bay was one of two provinces that had banned logging in their areas and were applying the ‘downstream process’ which was a more sustainable method.

Man charged over wife’s rape
A MAN has being remanded in custody at the Buimo jail, Lae, on charges of raping his wife. Soldier Luke Kapala, 32, from Labu Tale village, Huon Gulf Morobe province appeared for mention at the Lae District Court before magistrate Sasa Inkung last Friday. His case has been deferred to March 7 for further committal proceedings. The woman had complained to police of being raped twice by her husband in their Igam Barracks home in September and again in January. Mr Inkung told Kapala he could apply to the National Court for bail.

Poor road conditions in ENB
POOR road conditions along the south coast of the Sinivit area of the Pomio district in East New Britain province have affected the people economically. The condition of the road had deteriorated due to heavy rain in the area, preventing people taking their food and cash crops to the market in Rabaul and Kokopo. Community leader Tarsisius Teleng said the provincial and national government had turned a blind eye on this even though the road conditions had been like that for a long time, forcing people to ferry their produce by boat from Karong and Ili villages to the Merai area where the roads were better.

Robbery suspect detained
POLICE in East New Britain have identified and detained one suspect involved in the K20,000 armed robbery which took place in Rabaul early this month. According to Rabaul police station commander Chief Insp Ronnie Neai the accused has been identified as Matthew Otto from Sohun village in Namatanai district, New Ireland. Insp Neai said Otto, who was employed by the Guard Dog security firm to watch over the property conspired with three others alleged to be his wantoks and aided them to hold up the employees of Darragh’s Service Station and rob them off of the amount of money.