MPs deny overseas trip with PM

TWO Members of Parliament have denied media reports that they accompanied Prime Minister James Marape on a trip to Singapore.
Esa’ala MP Jimmy Maladina and Mt Hagen MP William Duma said they had never travelled with the PM and accused the media for trying to taint the image of the Government in its first week in office.
Maladina had denied a Post-Courier front page report yesterday that he accompanied Prime Minister James Marape on a trip to Singapore.
Maladina said the report was tainted in such a way as to give a bad picture of the Government in its very first week in office.
“I would like to clearly state that this is incorrect and I refute the claims by Post-Courier.
“The irony is that the newspaper painted a bad picture of Government on the front page, however, in the inside pages made thousands of kina from congratulatory messages for Prime Minister Marape: You just cannot bite the hand that feeds you.
“I even went as far as unequivocally telling the Post-Courier newsroom on Sunday, when they asked me if I was in Singapore, that I was in Port Moresby and attending to my electoral matters.
“For this once-respected newspaper to suggest, or try to cast some negativity and create suspicions of secret meetings in Singapore involving me, are simply not true,” Maladina said.
He said Prime Minister Marape was working around the clock to make the country a better place for all people, and the last thing he wanted at this time was shoddy journalism to set him back.
State-Owned Enterprise Minister and Mt Hagen MP William Duma said the Singapore trip was not a mysterious trip and had no adverse consequences for the country.
“I missed the flight as I misunderstood the departure schedule.
“It seems Post-Courier is twisting the facts to give its readers the impression that prime minister and his delegation had ulterior motives in travelling to Singapore when the fact is, there were no such motives and the trip had no adverse economic and political consequences for the country,” Duma said.