Bart: PM a hypocrite

LAE MP and New Generation Party leader Bart Philemon has accused Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare of being a hypocrite over the Yumi Yet Bridge project.
Mr Philemon, who blocked the whole bridge programme when he was treasurer and finance minister, was responding to Sir Michael’s statement that he would revive the controversial bridging programme that his Government condemned when it entered office five years ago.
When commissioning the Sankwep Bridge outside Lae last week, Sir Michael said he would go back to the bridge programme if his government was voted back into power.
“The programme came about when the then minister for finance Andrew Kumbakor approved the arrangement with Mabey and Johnson for a loan of 31 million pounds to fund the programme without proper assessment from Finance, Planning, Works, and Transport departments,” Mr Philemon said.
“When the Somare Government came into office in 2002, I requested Finance, Treasury, Transport, and Works Departments to review the Yumi Yet Bridge programme
as it was an unbudgeted item in the 2002 elections.”
He said that the review confirmed that the programme did not conform to the relevant bridging technicalities and had therefore breached the
Finance Management Act.
“It was terminated despite the Government being obliged to repay the loan of around K500 million,” he said.
Mr Philemon said the people of Papua New Guinea could not understand why Sir Michael wanted to review the programme.

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