Councillor wants Pundari to go clean up backyard

A WARD councillor in Kompiam-Ambum, Enga, has called on local MP John Pundari to forget national issues and start cleaning his own backyard.
Ward one councillor Meck Mola said the call by Pundari urging Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare to roundtable talks to resolve the current impasse was cheap politics.
He said the MP’s concern about national development being threatened “reflected how worried and troubled Pundari is” with the general election months away.
In a statement this week, Pundari had said political leaders distracted by the tug-of-war in Waigani need to re-focus on their primary role of serving the people.
He said prolonging the impasse would adversely affect national development and urged O’Neill and Sir Michael to discuss and thrash out the thorny issues with respect and humility.
“The time has come when we as leaders must reflect on all our actions and petition our own conscience to ensure that all our actions are morally and ethically correct and that we are upholding the Constitution that we all swore to protect and administer,” Pundari said.
On the issue of morality, Mola said the MP could not take on the role of mediator at the national level without first cleaning his own backyard.
He claimed there was general dissatisfaction among Pundari’s voters over their MP’s leadership qualities on honesty, accountability and transparency in service delivery since he entered parliament.
Pundari is a three-term politician who entered parliament in 1992.
“His leadership begs questioning because in the last 15 years Kompiam-Ambum’s existing infrastructure has deteriorated and the electorate’s services delivery mechanism is non-existent,” Mola said.
“I have continuously called for a thorough check on Kompiam-Ambum’s financial books and will continue to do so.
“A financial audit and investigation is needed to clear all doubts before we go into this general election.”
He said the MP’s recent call to resolve the political impasse had come as a surprise, “especially from someone who has been quiet all along until after a few months before the 2012 general election”.
Meanwhile, since the impasse last August, the PNG kina had been losing value against international trading partners. The international credit rating for PNG is also low with opportunities to lose foreign investors. There is also a rising crime rate because of police being scattered.