PM: Somare created debts

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday said sidelined Angoram MP Arthur Somare is masterful in creating deficits and mis-statements, and has no credibility to comment on his government’s budget and public finance management.
O’Neill was responding to comments by Somare on EMTV on Monday which warned of a budget deficit due to payments to legal firms defending the government’s case, and payments made to landowners in the PNG LNG project.
He said Somare was using events of recent times as a smokescreen to divert the attention of the public away from his (Arthur Somare) and his father’s record in public finance management.
“Our government has made payments to various law firms. These are fees (about K20 million) for their effort in defending state institutions and government against an issue created by the Somares who can’t accept the Aug 2 decision of parliament.
“These are provided for in the budget. We have made payments to various landowner groups associated with the PNG LNG projects.
“These are payments for commitments made by Somare and
his father during the UBSA and LBBSA development forums.
“The funding is provided for in the 2011 and 2012 budget. Somare and his team predicted a blowout in the 2011 budget last year, and the final budget outcome showed a deficit less than the projection.
“Somare’s record is disastrous. He engaged a law firm to advise on the IPIC loan transaction which the government paid A$30 million. Not only that. We now have a foreign exchange blowout of K900 million because Somare and his financial guru Glen Blake decided to denominate the loan in Australian dollar. Somare took control and ignored proper advice, resulting in this financial mess.
“We now have to cut allocations to vital services like health, education and infrastructure development to fund this financial hole, or else our shares in the PNG LNG project will be diluted,” O’Neill said.
“Somare and his father’s record at the National Gaming Control Board, and the Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd, clearly demonstrate that they can’t be trusted.
“This government has had to clean up the mistakes made by Somare and his father, and I don’t think the nation will forget this easily.”