Prime Minister James Marape announced that this coming Monday the 1st of March will be a Public Holiday for the nation to start remembering the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, and Friday the 12th March is also to be another public holiday as well. In a press conference today, PM Marape said a two weeks mourning period has been announced by the Prime Minister starting today 26th February to 12th March, to pay respect to the founding father of Papua New Guinea, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. Listen in to the news on NAU FM, Yumi FM & Legend FM News for more on this story at 5pm…and follow our news website pnghausbung.com for more on this story.

Despite the Police Commissioner, Mr. David Manning tested positive for COVID-19, the Police Headquarters (PHQ) where his office is located, has not gone into a 14-day lockdown period as required.   This was confirmed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations, Mr. Donald Yamasombi this morning. In fact, Mr. Yamasombi has ordered the headquarters to close for a few days only to allow the health team to disinfect the whole building, beef up the COVID-19 screening facilities at the main entrance, and then open on Thursday to resume normal operations.  “I am urging everyone (police officers and civilian staff) to go for volunteer COVID-19 testing as well so you can know your status before Thursday.”   The Deputy Commissioner added that this situation will not hamper the normal police operations in the city. Police units in the city will be on duty and attending to complaints and incidents.   Meanwhile in a related matter, the Gordons Police Station in Port Moresby has been closed as well today with officers taken to the various COVID-19 testing facilities in the city after one of their members tested positive recently.  Yamasombi said the station will be closed only for a few days to allow the health team to disinfect the whole station, including the cell. The station is expected to be reopened on Thursday, but this will now depend on the test results.  Apart from the 30 plus officers taken for testing, the 15 detainees at the police station cell were taken in for COVID-19 testing as well.       

The Acting Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Simon Sinai, made it clear this week that there is enough time available to hold by elections this year, like a by election for the Moresby Northwest seat left vacant following the death of the late Sir Mekere Morauta.  However, Mr. Sinai clarified that it is only after July this year that no more by elections will be held before the next National Election in 2022.   “The law forbids me not to go beyond 24th July 2021, which is exactly one year before the next issue of Writs. So, we have until July 24th to run any by election that comes on now, after that we will not do anything.”   Meanwhile, the residents of the Moresby Northwest electorate should expect things to start rolling for the by election sometime next week.  According to Mr. Sinai, he should issue the Writ for the by election next week.  The PNG Electoral Commission is looking at about K3million to K4million to run the by election and is currently working to secure the funding. 

The return of the Writ for the Bougainville Regional Seat to the Governor General on Tuesday marked the end of the by election; however, the same cannot be said about the payment of the services provided to achieve a successful by election. According to the Acting Papua New Guinea Electoral (PNGEC) Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai, this was due to the insufficient budget allocated for the by election. He said the PNGEC requested for K15million to cover for the three electorates. The K15million divided into the three electorates will see about K5million spent for each electorate conducting the by election.   “Unfortunately, we were only given eight million, so we worked with that and we are expecting some funds to come complete the logistics part of it and some outstanding allowances."  Mr. Sinai added that Bougainville is no easy region to run elections as people may think. A lot of logistical arrangement were made to conduct the by election in the three electorates. For instance, in North Bougainville where the atolls make up the 14 Constituencies, a big ship was engaged to better reach the many atolls than the small boats.   “We hired a bigger ship from out of Lae, so it serviced the Northern part of Bougainville."  "The same was also experienced for South and Central Bougainville where a lot of logistical support was engaged to get the teams in and out of the polling areas."  However, despite the challenges the Acting PNG Electoral Commissioner said the by election was done successfully. In fact, the by election was concluded ahead of its scheduled time.  "We issued the Writ on the 3rd of December (2020) and to return the Writ on the 19th (February 2021)which is supposed to be at the end of this week.  But it is satisfaction to the electoral commission that we have conducted the elections as early as possible and within time to return the Writ on the 16th (February 2021)."   Meanwhile, the Writ was returned to the Governor General at the Government House in Port Moresby, where it was witnessed by the officers of the PNGEC and the new Bougainville Provincial Member elect, Peter Tsiamalili Junior. 

The state of Papua New Guinea this week signed documents that will see Total, the developer of the Papua LNG project, move forward with its planning and design phase of the country’s second LNG project in Gulf and Central. Petroleum Minister, Kerenga Kua, said this is significant as it guarantees the protection of the fiscal arrangement. “The documents we have signed guarantees the protection of the fiscal arrangement. The cost of construction, the tax regime and all those things are stabilized, so it gives certainty to project planning and project execution. So that was a very important milestone process that we have completed.” Petroleum Minister Kerenga Kua signing documents at Government House The minister said this has given the confidence to the project partners to commence the next stage, which is the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) stage, where they will design the whole project. “That will then help them identify the costs that go with the project and from that point onwards they will go looking for the money from financiers to finance the project and then we can go into construction mode.” The Minister also called upon the landowners of the project impact provinces; Gulf and Central provinces, to work with the developers, the provincial government, and the national government to fully complete the landowner identification process. “I want to assure everybody, especially our landowners in those two provinces that this process is at an advanced stage. The landowner identification I think has been substantially completed. However, the project developer could not bring it to my level for the final vetting of that study and from there for me to sign on the determinations.” This is because there is National Court Injunction stopping Total from presenting the landowner identification studies to the Minister. “Our energy and attention were focused on getting to this stage and getting past this stage. Now that we have achieved this, we will put focus back on the National Court proceedings. Hopefully, we can work towards having the injunctions removed, so that we can invite the landowners to work with us so that we settle our issues in an amicable way without going to the courts,” said Minister Kua.   “I want to give my assurance to our landowners in both Gulf and Central that we will do everything possible to hear them out and where we can, we will accommodate them.” The documents were signed at the Government House in Port Moresby by the Governor General, His Excellency Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae, Minister Kua and the Total management and representatives.   

The AFL Junior Development Program is taking a new approach to deliver its schools and community AFL programs this year, one that is focused on quality over quantity.   The Junior Development Program Manager, Mr. David Topeni, explained that the new term approach will see plans developed and executed for each school term. This will enable the Junior Development teams to effectively deliver the programs, including the Niukick program.  “Term plan is not like every year, yearly targets. It will be a short-term plan easy to achieve within each term,” said Mr. Topeni.  He further explained that the previous approach focused on covering as many schools and communities as possible in a year. The new ones look at delivering as much as possible to the youths under the programs.   Mr. Topeni also said the new approach will go hand in hand with the current COVID-19 protocols in place.  It will enable the AFL Junior Development team work within the protocols and achieve its target in delivering  the programs.  The AFL Development Program runs and delivers sports and development programs to get the young involved in the sporting code through the schools’ competition. But it is not only that, under its development programs, it promotes healthy living through sports in schools and communities.    

Local company Lifu Holdings Limited (LHL), trading as Mobil Pit Stop Service Station, has given away the prizes to the final winners in Port Moresby for its Free Fuel Winners promotion for the month of December 2020.  This week saw more than five lucky winners receiving prizes ranging from 12 months of free fuel supply to mobile phones, shopping vouchers and 65-inch flat screen TVs.  LHL Managing Director, Margaret Lifu, said the promotion was to give back to their customers for their support, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic period which has disrupted a lot of things, including business.    "2020 was a particularly tough year for everyone.  This is our way of giving back to customers to say thank you in appreciation for choosing Mobil as your preferred service station. Not everyone can be a winner in promotions but one good thing covid did was spur us to think more about how we can reciprocate in appreciation or at least to add value to the service. So, it’s more than just a business transaction and 2021 will be an exciting year for us all.”  The promotion started back in May 2020 and every month winners were drawn right up until December, of which the winners were drawn today at the Mobil PitStop service station at Hohola.   One of the winners Susan Lae (right) standing with Mr. Matheson Justin Ela Beach service station retail supervisor (centre) and Janda Tapma (left), the retail supervisor for the Hohola service station.   

The constituents of the Moresby Northwest electorate in the National Capital District (NCD) should see a by election held in the coming months for the vacant seat following the death of the late member, Sir Mekere Morauta. That was the indication from the Acting Papua New Guinean (PNG) Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Simon Sinai, when giving a brief update on election matters in the country. “The Moresby Northwest Electorate by election dates would be set for February or March and announce soon after the mourning period fades in the next few weeks,” said the Acting Electoral Commissioner. However, the timing of this by election will be questioned by many as 2022 is just next year and the National Election will be around mid- 2022. But, to put the questions to rest, the PNG Electoral Commission said there is still time for a new Member to take the seat. According to the Electoral Commission, it is by law that after the 24th of July 2021, a by- election will not be on the cards because the date will by then mark 12 more months to go before the Writs are issued for the 2022 National General Election. This simply means that no by election will take place after that date because there will not be enough time available for a sitting member to do anything much for the constituents before the National Election.

Local company Lifu Holdings Limited (LHL), trading as Mobil PitStop service station, has given away the prizes to the final winners in Port Moresby for its Free Fuel Winners promotion for the month of December 2020. Today saw more than five lucky winners receiving prizes ranging from 12 months of free fuel supply to mobile phones, shopping vouchers and 65-inch flat screen TVs. LHL Managing Director, Margaret Lifu, said the promotion was to give back to their customers for their support, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic period which has disrupted a lot of things, including business. "2020 was a particularly tough year for everyone." "This is our way of giving back to customers to say thank you in appreciation for choosing Mobil as your preferred service station." "Not everyone can be a winner in promotions but one good thing COVID-19 did was spur us to think more about how we can reciprocate in appreciation or at least to add value to the service." "So, it’s more than just a business transaction and 2021 will be an exciting year for us all.” The promotion started back in May 2020 and every month winners were drawn right up until December, of which the winners were drawn today at the Mobil PitStop service station at Hohola.

Students from elementary to secondary school level will soon learn about everything to do with finance in school now that the wheels have been set in motion to make financial literacy a part of the school curriculum in the country. This morning saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) and the Center for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI), and the Education Department to pave way for this aspect of financial education to be taught in schools. Education Secretary, Dr. Uke Kombra said this MoU will set forth a pilot project that will see 48 schools in the country trial out this new concept this year as approved by the Education Department. Dr Kombra, when highlighting the importance of teaching financial literacy in schools, said “When this proposal came through to my former minister from the Minister for Treasury for this project to be supported, I whole heartedly advised my minister that we must take this up as a critical subject within our school curriculum.” BPNG Governor, Mr. Loi Bakani, added that the aim is to get the young generation well vested in how to handle their finances in the future. The more they know about managing money now, the better they will be in the future. He further said this partnership with the Education Department is part of the CEFI strategic plan 2021 to 2025, which part of it is the implementation of financial education in schools. “It will be priority for us together with the department of education to roll it out quickly in terms of the pilots and then moving on to the next phase of implementation in the curriculum and teaching also,” said Mr. Bakani. Mr. Bakani further added that training of the teachers in financial literacy is an important part of the implementation of the initiative and as such, it will be given priority as well. Meanwhile, when explaining how this will work, Dr. Kombra said financial literacy will not be taught as a new and separate subject. Instead, resource books will be developed to give additional information to support what is already in the curriculum on financial education. For instance, students at the elementary level will be taught the very basics on financial literacy compared to the higher grades.   Nevertheless, the very aim of this MoU will be to pave way for financial education as a relevant need-based curriculum to be integrated into the existing Standard Based Curriculum (SBC) to create a savings culture at an early age by teaching students about managing money, savings, and investments. Secretary for Education Dr Uke Kombra

When COVID-19 hit back at the start of 2020, it exposed a lot of issues within the country’s health sector that will need some drastic work to fix. That is why the government is adamant to see through that the health sector is improved and ready for any major outbreaks in the future. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape, when giving his New Year’s message, touched on that when saying that the government’s provincial hospital program is geared towards this. “In the health sector we are starting specific provincial hospital program that will see firstly five of the sixteen provincial hospitals developed as we embark on a five year development program for our provincial hospital throughout our country.” The PM said this program will also include the construction a special major referral hospital for Bougainville in the Autonomous Region. “Our Port Moresby and Lae hospitals are now being developed to be specialists’ hospitals for heart, kidney, liver and cancer patients, and we are working also to fix and strengthen our medical schools and nursing collages to ensure we have enough trained medical personnel working in our country.”

PNG Electoral Commission is expected to make an announcement before Christmas on its arrangements for a by election for the Moresby North-West electorate following the passing of the late member Sir Mekere Morauta on the weekend.   According to the Commission, a mourning period of three months is given as respect for the family of a sitting member of parliament that has died. Only after that, the process of having a by election can take place. However, if the period is within 12months leading to a national general election date, a by election may be forfeited according to the law. Therefore, the PNGEC this week will have to decide on whether to have a by election or hold off until the 2022 national election. The Acting PNG Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Simon Sinai, is expected to make an announcement regarding the decision this week. Meanwhile, PM James Marape had assured the people of Moresby North-West this week that they will have a leader to bring them services and development into the electorate going into the 2022 National General Elections.