Process not followed, transaction failed: MP

AITAPE-Lumi MP Patrick Pruaitch says the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) K3 billion loan was a failed transaction the Government has ever entered into.
“It is a failed transaction because the process was not followed, the laws were not adhered to (and) Parliament was not involved,” Pruaitch said.
He said two transactions happened not too far apart – the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) loan in 2009 and the UBS loan in 2014.
“In 2009, we undertook the IPIC exchangeable bond to raise funding for us to participate in the Papua New Guinea LNG project which was completed with due process with every law complied with,” he said. “That project today is a success story for our country.
“Unfortunately the UBS loan did not follow the required process.
“I was a minister in cabinet. Unfortunately I was not involved in any of those cabinet meetings that gave approval for UBS transactions.
“I was not the treasurer then. It was at the (end) part of it that I came in as treasurer and rightly requested the then PM to handle the UBS transaction because I was not party to it and I had not much knowledge of that transaction.”