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THIRTY-five Southern Highlands local level
government presidents have not been paid their normal residential allowances of
K400 per fortnight since last August. South Koroba LLGC president Mark Bibilia,
who claimed to be speaking on behalf of other presidents, said they had been
patient for so long and were frustrated as they had children to feed, school
fees to pay among meeting other domesticate needs. He said after the National
Court ruled that the SoE was null and void, the provincial administration also
failed to facilitate their payments, adding the presidents brought the matter up
with new Governor Anderson Agiru during their provincial assembly sitting in
Mendi last month. Mr Agiru referred them to provincial administrator William
Powi.
Security an international issue
MELANESIAN states should share resources to address security concerns affecting
the region before seeking support from the international community. Foreign
Affairs Secretary Gabriel Pepson said this during a recent security meeting of
Pacific heads of security and foreign affairs. He said security was an
international issue that required international attention and effort to address
but we must first focus on dealing with security issues regionally before
seeking international assistance. The security workshop, among other things,
discussed two concept papers for the establishment of a sub-divisional command
force and a framework for information sharing between the island states.
Landowners set condition
SOUTHERN Highlands’ resource owners will back ExxonMobil in any gas development
only if outstanding MoAs are settled, chairman of Hides Special Purpose
Authority Lemson Mapira said. He said there was surplus money due to petroleum
and minerals and the MoA commitments could be accommodated in the 2007
Supplementary Budget and 2008 Budget. The resource owners’ supports Governor
Anderson Agiru and the NA-led Government by looking after the petroleum projects
over 15 years without any disturbance to project areas. The landowners demand
the release of current MoA project funds outstanding since last year.
22 demand payment from NSO
TWENTY-two health workers in Western Highlands are demanding the National
Statistical Office (NSO) in Port Moresby to pay their outstanding payments for a
survey they conducted last year. Spokesman Justin Buri said NSO recruited them
to do interviews in every districts of the province for the Demography Health
Survey. He said NSO was yet to pay their final allowances since the survey was
completed last year. He claimed Western Highlands was the first province to
complete its survey and also assisted other provinces namely Simbu and Eastern
Highlands.
Government
urged to conduct census
A FORMER local level government president in East Sepik has called on the
National Government to immediately convene a National Population Census for PNG.
Mike Primus, former president for Boikin Dagua LLG, said it was very crucial for
the Government to conduct an accurate national census for an accurate data to
enable them to equally distribute its wealth to the people of this country. He
said that the Government’s budget was based on population figures and that if
there were no accurate data in place, wealth would not be equally distributed.
PNG defenceless
PAPUA New Guinea and Solomon Islands are least equipped to deal with effects of
climate change due to the emission of greenhouse gas resulting in the rising of
the sea level, Solomon Islands communication, aviation and meteorology minister
Patrick Vahoe said during the 62nd United Nations General Assembly. The fragile
ecosystem of these countries with others in the Pacific and Caribbean, means
they are least equipped to deal with the effects of climate change, and are at
the receiving end in terms of lives, and economic and social loss due to the
impact of disasters.
Man admits to raping student
A SENIOR teacher at the Jimi River Primary School in Western Highlands has
admitted to raping a Grade 8 student last week. Sources said the teacher
surrendered himself to police after the girl’s father learnt of the incident,
which occurred at the school. They said police were investigating the matter.
Acting provincial police commander Chief Insp Ambane Kaiglo confirmed the matter
but said he could not comment as he did not have enough information at the
moment.
Exam papers ‘sold’
COPIES of next week’s Grade 10 examination papers are being sold on the streets
of Port Moresby by staff from the Measurement Services Unit (MSU), a reserve
policeman said yesterday.
Joe Martin said he and three other policemen received a tip-off that the papers
were being sold for K500 a set outside a supermarket in Gerehu.
They rushed over there yesterday morning and found a student with an envelope
and an English examination paper in it.
Mr Martin said the student refused to tell them how he gained possession of the
paper angering one of the policemen, who tore it up.
Secretary for Education Joseph Pagelio said such claims also surfaced before the
examinations in previous years.
“The Education Department investigated but failed to find any substantial
evidence to prove that officers were involved in the selling of exam papers,” he
said.
Goroka town to host debate
GOROKA town is set to host the first provincial
inter-school debate competition today.
And one of the two hot questions to be debated on was Should pregnant school
girls be allowed to return to school after giving birth?
The other question was Should PNG’s natural forest be harvested by huge
companies?
The debate competition had been organised by the Eastern Highlands Provincial
Education Division with the support of United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef)
Goroka zone office.
Eastern Highlands Provincial Education adviser Conrad Esoke said it would be an
interesting competition for those schools located within the town’s vicinity.
The debate will be held at the Young Christian Hall and will start at 9.30am.
New website opens marketing avenues
TOUR operators can now market their products online following the launch of the
website for the Tour Operators Association of PNG (TOAPNG) recently.
TOAPNG is an umbrella organisation of the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) and
represents the interests of mainly local tourism operators.
The website had been one important item on TIA’s agenda for a long time and has
finally been implemented.
Thirty-one operators had so far registered their products on the website.
Interested operators, overseas visitors or the public can check the site on
www.toapng.org.pg or send email to
toapng@pngtourism.org.pg
 
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