Briefs

Mobile ‘spam’
EARLY this year, I signed up with Digicel’s promo for NRL news to be sent to me. To be honest, I only joined because I wanted to know the latest news about the Broncos and Cowboys. However, it did not turn out to be what I had expected because I was also sent news of all the NRL teams. To make things worse, there were duplicated messages being sent and I was charged 49 toea for each message. I wonder what kind of engineers and programmers Digicel is employing. The automated system is sending duplicated messages, sending news to the wrong phone numbers and not even responding to stop sending these messages when the code is sent to end them. I tried many times to stop the NRL subscription but there was no response except more duplicated messages. What I would like to know is whether Digicel is going to restore my credits through no fault of mine. – Gwaday M, via email

Editor’s note: Digicel has, in good faith, agreed to reimburse the writer for the credits while the issue are being investigated. The writer can provide his/her contact details to The National to forward to Digicel or contact Digicel’s customer care directly.

Latest price through mobile?
THANK you, Digicel and bemobile, for providing better coverage and cheaper rates both during the day and night. Now I can talk more. I have one request, can either or both mobile phone companies also provide a service for checking the latest prices of produce such as cocoa, copra, vanilla and coffee. The daily price must be updated daily by the cocoa board, Kokonas Industries (copra) and Coffee Industry Corporation. For instance, a cocoa farmer in New Ireland province can have
up-to-date price of the different cocoa exporters, for example, NGIP-Agmark and Garamut, before making a trip to Kokopo to sell his produce. This service will be useful to farmers as it can help them decide when and where to sell their produce. – To Manu, Lae

Baki must explain
I SUPPORT the letter by Kotiufa Gipe (“Tell the truth, Baki”, Nov 3) regarding the weapons seized by Customs last week. Police Commissioner Gari Baki should come out and tell us who placed the order for these high powered weapons. I commend the Customs staff for doing a great job. I call on the concerned authorities to investigate further and expose the culprits behind this. – Suspicious mind, via email

Let down by Embel
IT was good to read and hear that the Minister assisting the Prime Minister Philemon Embel is doing a good job to field a PNG team in the NRL. I hope our bid will be successful. The minister has been given the mandate to represent the people of Nipa-Kutubu for the last 20 years. But to date, not a single government service has reached the poor people who gave him that mandate. If only he had tried to deliver services like what he is doing with the bid team, the people would have been real proud of him. – Justine Sola, via email

Time to review acts
I READ with interest your report “Judge slams DPE head for ignoring court order” (Nov 3). I agree with Justice Ambeng Kandakasi’s description of bureaucrats being complacent in addressing issues of national importance. Such is the attitude often displayed by our senior bureaucrats. The sad thing is when you sack them for incompetence and non-performance, these people run to the courts to get reinstated because there are too many loopholes in our outdated public service general orders and management acts. It is time these acts are reviewed and tightened. – Franco Wawen, via email

Where is PNG heading?
I READ both newspapers each day in the UK and follow with great interest events, both good and bad, of my wife’s homeland and often wonder where PNG is heading. I think I got a bit of a clue from the picture of settlement dwellers sitting at Badili waiting for water (The National, Nov 3). I had to take a second look as bang in the middle of the picture was a young girl obviously sending a text on her mobile phone. Was she ordering a delivery from one of the private water trucks that I know operate in the city? My colleagues think it is priceless. – Dave Lowes, via email