Yet another loan, but not for benefit of people

 THE recent Cabinet reshuffle by Prime  Minister  Peter  O’Neill was  not  done in the interest of  the  country. 

PNG  does not need the loan while Oil Search is a public company and does  not  need  the  government to fund its shares. 

US$ 1.2  billion  (K3 billion)  is  a  big amount  of money and I am not sure how this, or any future, government will repay it. 

The question we should be asking is why O’Neill is hell-bent on borrowing such a big amount of money to fund shares of a public company when the money could have been put to good use in rebuilding our health and  education systems, which  are fast falling apart. 

All  our mining, gas and oil industry revenues will now be diverted to repay this loan and we will never benefit from what they will generate in the years to come. 

The  entire  population is still crying for government services to reach them, so how can we justify the K3 billion loan for shares? 

The past constitutional amendments, with  creations  of  new  government subsidiary bodies, the fighting over the ownership of the PNG Sustainable Development Programme and the recent Cabinet reshuffling  seemed well-planned and cleverly executed to  arrive  at  this huge loan deal. 

Treasurer Don Polye has clearly indicated that he has done nothing wrong  and  what  he did  was  in the best interest of this country. 

The  same  apply  to  all  other  sacked ministers. 

Finally, I truly regret the current conduct of this government and what it will do to the future of this nation. 

All  this  should  be enough for all the coalition partners and their leaders to realise and understand clearly what it means to become a briefcase carrier or a rubberstamp. 

It  is time s omething  serious  is done to change this government. 

Douglas Gilichibi

Port Moresby