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Yaki: Wrongs not corrected
THE State of Emergency in the Southern Highlands, which was last week
declared null and void by the Supreme Court, has not corrected the
fundamental wrongs in the province, former Ialibu/Pangia MP Roy Yaki
said. Mr Yaki said the reported expenditure of K27 million over the
six-month period was a waste of money as there was no evidence of any
new infrastructure in the province. He said there was a large fleet of
vehicles in the province but hardly any new projects. Mr Yaki said there
appeared to be a battle for political control of the province, but
little done to remove corruption and bad governance. He said the failure
by the Government to secure support of 55 votes to extend the SoE showed
MPs refused to be driven by National Alliance and Opposition leader
Peter O’Neill’s political motives.
Basua: Accept students
MINISTER for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology David
Basua has written to several tertiary institutions urging them not to
turn away students from Manam who have not paid their school fees. Mr
Basua said in a notice to all deputy registrars and principals of
universities, teachers, nursing, technical and business colleges. Mr
Basua said the National Government through the Minister for Finance and
Planning John Hickey had made the commitment to pay the students’
tuition fees for this year’s academic year. He urged these institutions
to await the payment of the fees from the National Government and not to
turn away the students if they failed to pay up their fees. The people
of Manam are living in care centres in Hickey’s Bogia electorate after
the Manam volcano eruptions devastated the island two years ago.
Four women to run under NA
THE National Alliance Party is expected to endorse four women candidates
in the coming general elections. Party secretary Joyce Grant said two
candidates would run under the party banner in the Eastern Highlands
province while the other two would contest seats in the Southern region.
Ms Grant said the party did not impose a quota on how many women were
endorsed by the party as their constitution gave everyone an equal
opportunity to stand, but preference was given to women who were in the
same winning margin to men. This was revealed during the prime
minister’s meeting with women leaders on Wednesday morning in Morauta
Haus to mark International Women’s Day.
PNG Power workmen robbed
THREE PNG Power workmen, who were cutting tree branches which were
entangling power lines, were attacked by eight suspects who robbed them
of K3,600 worth of property at West Taraka on Monday. Lae police alleged
that at around 1pm, eight men, who were armed with three home-made guns
and knives, held up the employees and stole one chainsaw, a bag of
tools, mobile phones, a digital camera, two bank cards and K400 in cash.
The gang also broke the windscreen of the PNG Power vehicle before they
escaped. Police arrived at the scene but the suspects had already fled
from the area. Police have yet to make any arrests or recover the
properties stolen. This is not the first time PNG Power employees
attending to power lines have been attacked.
WHP police need new escort vehicles
By JAMES APA GUMUNO
WESTERN Highlands police need new vehicles to provide security when
escorting ballot boxes to counting centres.
Security coordination committee team leader Chief Insp John Kale told
the provincial election steering committee during their first meeting
yesterday that out of the 39 vehicles they had, 28 were unreliable.
Insp Kale said they needed new reliable vehicles to travel into remote
areas to provide security and escort ballot boxes back because of
threats received from sources to block the roads.
He said the transport issue was still under discussion and hoped that
with the assistance from relevant authority like the provincial
government they would be in a better position to carry out their task
professionally.
He said about 2,150 security personnel, which include police, PNG
Defence force, and Correctional Service, would be engaged during the
polling to ensure that the election was trouble free.
He said about 250 security personnel would provide security during the
counting period.
Insp Kale also told the caretaker election manager and provincial
returning officer John Kilip to bring all the counting into Mount Hagen
city.
Writs will be issued on May 4 and will be returned on July 30.
RD Tuna fights HIV/AIDS at work
THE RD Tuna Canners company in Madang is leading the way to fight
HIV/AIDS in the work place and surrounding communities.
Community relations manager Stotick Kamya told The National in an
interview yesterday that a group known as “behaviour change
communication” was established within the company to help disseminate
HIV/AIDS information to the staff at the work place and the surrounding
communities.
He said behaviour change communication was an effective means of
disseminating HIV/AIDS information and educating people to take
voluntary counselling and testing.
He said the company had taken the task head on to fight the deadly
disease after RD Tuna operation sites were identified as a ‘high risk’
setting by the National AIDS Council and the Provincial AIDS Council.
Bougainville women mark day
Women in the Autonomous Region of Bougianville gathered at the Kuri
Village Resort with the Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea
Chris Moraitis to celebrate the International Women’s Day yesterday.
Mr Moraitis said he was privileged to meet with the Bougainvillean women
to mark the significant event, which commemorated the contribution and
hard work of all women in the world towards nation building.
In his speech he said women in PNG had played an important role in the
capacity building of the nation.
“Today marks a significant moment in our lives to pay respect and
tribute towards the contribution of what our women and girls have done
so far for our country,” Mr Moraitis said.
He said the challenge for Bougainville women was to have more
representatives of women in the next Autonomous Bougainville Government
election in 2010.
OC short of K2.8million to implement plans
THE Ombudsman Commission is currently implementing some of the 201
recommendations of a review in 2005 and needs additional funding to
fully implement them.
Initially, the OC requested K13.8 million in budget allocation from the
National Government, but it was given K11million – K2.8 million short –
and this adversely affected the OC in fully implementing the
recommendations of the comprehensive management review conducted by
Deloitte and facilitated by officers from the commission.
Chief Ombudsman Ila Geno said this on Monday during the announcement of
the appointment of three directors to head key divisions within the
commission. Ombudsman John Nero said the commission was organising
itself in a way to properly perform its Constitutional duties.
Mr Geno said a major change within the OC was the abolishing of the
position of the director operations as the duty could be performed by
the three directors.
“We have no doubt in their performance,” he said.
“The approach the Ombudsman Commission is taking is not a short sighted
one.”
He said the changes were a result of close consultations and discussions
between OC officers and relevant government departments including the
Public Services Commission.
NASA execs arrested
By JULIA DAIA BORE
THE National Court order issued yesterday morning and delivered to the
police in Lae has been effected.
Police, acting on the order, yesterday arrested the four office bearers
of the National Academic Staff Association (NASA) at the University of
Technology. They are now behind bars facing charges of contempt of
court.
Steels Lawyers representing the University of Technology management
confirmed to The National late yesterday that the court order to arrest
the ring leaders of NASA was delivered to the police in Lae at about
1:30pm yesterday.
By 2:30pm, Lae police went onto the campus and the four ring-leaders
cooperated and gave themselves up to the police willingly and are
currently behind bars waiting to be transferred to the court in Port
Moresby to be heard by Justice Ambeng Kandakasi.
The judge granted the order to arrest the four ring leaders.
The four academics were arrested yesterday following a National Court
decision on Wednesday morning finding them in contempt of court.
The four NASA executives arrested were president Pulas Yowat, his deputy
Robert Songan, secretary Raymond Bure and treasure Gibson Tito.
 
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