The move to have parliament pay the allowances for the Ward Members throughout the country has come as a relief for the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, as it will ensure payments are made on time. Minister for Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, Mr. Soroi Eoe who was speaking during a press conference this week, said that for a while now the department has been taking the heat on not paying outstanding Member allowances, even though it wasnt the departments responsibility. SRC (Salaries and Remuneration Commission) determination, which its report was produced last year, has brought Ward Members to the ambient of the National Parliament. So, in other words every elected leader who will be paid for by parliament, the funds will be allocated direct from the Treasury to parliament, said Minister Eoe. So, at least it takes that responsibly away from us. Thats a good thing and Im pleased with it because otherwise, our people will continue to blame us for not doing this important task. By stating this, the minister alluded that the Ward Members can now be also paid on time and not having to wait for longer periods. Reflecting on the work of his department, the minister gave a run through of their current responsibilities and the reasons for the delayed payment of allowances for the Ward Members. “Were asked to give up to date information on allowances and some times its embarrassing. But our job is basically to ensure the policy matters are implemented and administration matters are implemented. When it comes to finance, we dont deal with the finance, the minister clarified. Mr. Eoe explain that they have had to go out of their way to get the money from the Treasury to pay the Ward Members, which has been going on for some time under his leadership as Minister. “Ive had Ward Members calling from remote parts of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and I was able to talk to them, but some times I may have given them misleading information, because I tell them that its okay, our officers are dealing with it and by this time you should be able to get it. The reality is that its beyond our control because money has to come from Treasury. The minister is hoping that things should change soon and everything works well for the Ward Members in the country. Meanwhile, the Minister also announced that the Treasury has released K30 million to pay Ward Members outstanding allowances, which should cover the period of April to August 2023. Thereafter, we'll still go back to Treasury to give us new batch of money to pay for the balance, hopefully for September to December.

The Morobe Governor and newly appointed Chairman of the new Bipartisan Committee to look into provincial government systems, Luther Wenge, aims to achieve the goals of the government to identify a workable system that would be implemented at the provincial levels to achieve development goals. Speaking during his official appointment as Chairman, Wenge thanked the Minister for Provincial Government and Local Level Government Affairs, Soroi Eoe for having faith in his leadership and appointing him as Chairman. Wenge vows to work towards achieving the government’s goal on reforming provincial government systems. “I shall do my best with intellectual ability and with the experience as a governor for fifteen years. I as a leader will chair this very important bipartisan committee to deliver in consistence with the Terms of Reference what this committee is required to do for this country,” said Mr. Wenge. The reason for his show of commitment is because of the current situation faced by the people in the remote and the remotest parts of the country, whom services and development has not reached for the past 40 years because of no roads, bridges, airstrips and even proper wharfs. Governor Wenge pointed out that as a government, it must answer the cries of its people but the Organic Law on Provincial Governments, which said to deliver services to those areas, is not really working effectively as expected, even though the law was in motion since 1995. It is for this reason that the Bipartisan Committee was established on the back of the Governors’ Conference earlier this year in Port Moresby. The aim was for politicians, provincial administration teams, and departmental heads and experts to put their heads together to identify loopholes in the current laws and come up with recommendations for changes that would give more power to the provincial governments to deliver on the services and developments for their people. The whole idea is to decentralize powers from the national level, where it is deemed proper for the provincial level to perform them. Meanwhile, the new Bipartisan Committee consists of Members of Parliament, departmental professionals and provincial teams who will work together to achieve the Terms of Reference listed for the Committee to go by in their work to review the currently provincial government systems.

The World Indigenous Business Forum (WIBF) will be hosted in Port Moresby in a few weeks’ time and apart from making the best of business connectivity with the rest of the world, the Forum will serve as platform to promote Papua New Guinea (PNG) to the rest of the world. The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru certainly believes in that which is why his Department of International Trade and Investment (DITI) is running point on the hosting of this event that would see the indigenous businesses from across the globe, gather in the capital city for this significant event. The minister even told the Prime Minister during a recent gathering that he should be proud of this because his efforts and that of his government to make PNG become an attractive investment and even tourism destination, are starting to bear fruit. “We promote our country as a country of so many cultures, nice people, and a country that is full of investment opportunities,” said the minister. “So, this is a wonderful opportunity to promote ourselves as a nation as we count down to the fifty years of our independence.” Minister Maru said it's high time PNG steps forward and shows the global community that despite the negative stories, the country and its people have a lot to offer to the rest of the world. “So, this event is going to be a big event and we are hoping that this event will change the views of many people around the world.” Meanwhile, the WIBF will be staged from the 24th to the 26th of October with all the exhibitions, dialogues and presentations taking place at the APEC Haus and the Ela Beach.

The New Porgera Mine in the Enga province is nearing its re- opening with the latest progress being the approval of the Special Mining Lease (SML) 13 to New Porgera Limited (NPL). The Governor General Sir Bob Dadae granted SML to NPL on Friday 13th October, following the signing of the Mining Development Contract by the State and NPL. The State and NPL also executed the Fiscal Stability Agreement for the New Porgera project. Barrick Gold President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Bristow congratulated the parties on achieving these major milestones which now brings the mine significantly closer to restart. “These are among the key agreements that must be signed for the mine to reopen. The only remaining step before the people of Porgera can see the ‘white smoke’ they have been waiting for is the conclusion of new compensation agreements with the project landowners,” Bristow said. NPL will meet with tenement agents in the coming week to commence the negotiation of those agreements. Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL) has maintained the mine in care and maintenance for over 3 years in preparation for the restart and has taken the necessary steps to position New Porgera to reopen by the end of 2023. Recruitment is being accelerated to employ the additional workforce required for Porgera to ramp up operations as soon as the compensation agreements are in place.

The Local Level Government (LLG) Elections is confirmed for mid-2024 and this election may see for the first the LLG presidents being elected by the people, in a presidential style of election. The Minister for Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, Soroi Eoe said the matter of deciding the course of future LLG President elections was discussed last week and also this week during government caucus. Minister Eoe said since last week Cabinet debated whether or not people should elect the presidents of the various LLGs or continue with the current process where Ward members would elect the presidents. Since then, Mr. Eoe said he raised the issue to get the reaction of the members of the government caucus as to how the presidents would be elected. “So, we conducted a government caucus last week and this week and the majority of the Members of Parliament would like to see presidents be elected by the people.” “So, this is what I will be taking to the Cabinet and then after Cabinet has endorsed that, then we can then present it to the Governor General for endorsement and approval.” Should this go through, Papua New Guinea would see a new type of voting system introduced at the LLG level, where the people will have the power to decide on who they want to be their LLG President.

The Local Level Government (LLG) elections will be conducted mid next year with funding to be made available for it. That was the confirmation from the Minister for Provincial and Local Level Government (LLG) Affairs, Soroi Eoe when responding to questions from the Southern Highlands Governor William Powi, on the status of the long awaited LLG elections in the country. "This is an important election of the third level of government, which is an important part of our government system; therefore, funds will be made available. I know our government will make the funds available to fund this very important election,” said the minister. “As to how much it will cost, that will be subject to discussions between my department and the electoral commission to come up with a budget to conduct this very import election.” Governor Powi had asked the minister during question time in parliament this week on the funding aspect of the election as well because he was concerned about how the LLG elections, especially in his province, were conducted in the past and how this has become a major spender of funds despite it being a third-tier election. Powi is concerned that resources directed to the District Development Authority (DDA) might be used again for the hosting major campaigns and camps during the LLG election period. He has urged that this area should be also looked at seriously by the government. Meanwhile, the LLG elections will be conducted from July to August 2024.

The Port Moresby AFL (POMAFL) Association has decided against holding a grand final rematch, instead coming up with a decision to settle the match following the unfortunate brawl during last weekend’s A- Grade grand- final that disrupted the match. POMAFL President Mr. Douglas Lai in a written statement, said that the fight during last weekend’s grand final match involving supporters and players from both the Gereka Bombers and the Gordons Kokofas, was unfortunate. “On the matter, we regret that we have reached the end of this season with this reprehensible grand final result with the seniors’ game ending in the brawl. Hence, after postmortem of the debacle, a decision has been made to put this issue to rest.” The president said after a serious deliberation over the last three days, the executives of the POMAFL Association have decided to award a tie to both teams. The reasons for the decision are as follows. 1. It is important to acknowledge the outstanding commitment and performance of the two seniors (A- Grade) teams of Gereka Bombers and Gordons Kokofas in this 2023 season. 2. There were no clear winners as the match was incomplete. 3. There will be no rematch of the grand- final. “Again, our sincere apologies on the grand final brawl and we assure you that the matter will be addressed and sorted before the commencement of the 2024 POMAFL season,” said the president.

The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru has assured parliament that the Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone (PMIZ) Project in Madang is on track to commence construction by next year and onwards. Minister Maru, when responding to questions from the Member for Kundiawa on the status of the PMIZ project during question time in parliament this week, said the project is currently in the negotiation phase with RD Tuna Cannery, to partner with the government to develop the project. “So, the government’s plan is to go into a joint venture agreement with them, start the fishing and look at building a first big world class cannery in PMIZ next year using some of the funds that the government has provided for in the budget, K70 million for PMIZ and K30 million for the Manus province to go into fisheries,” said Minister Maru. “So, that’s where we are at. At this stage we are hoping that the State Negotiation Team and the RD team will conclude the negotiations over the next four weeks, and a proposal will come back to Cabinet to set up the first joint venture company.” Maru explained that once this goes through, it will for the first-time see Papua New Guineans be able to own fishing boats and fish their own waters, plus the country to have bigger and better fish processing facilities to process the country’s own catches and export to overseas markets in large quantities. “This is a very important step, and I am happy to inform parliament that in the next few weeks I should be bringing back a proposal to Cabinet on how we can go into a joint venture and by next year, start building the first fish processing plant within the PMIZ.” "If we get the first one up, I have no doubt many other investors will start looking at putting up processing facilities within PMIZ and then that’s how we’ll get it built at the cheapest cost possible.” He further explained that idea to partner with RD Tuna is that the company already has an existing fish processing plant in Madang next to the PMIZ project area and instead of building the PMIZ on its own and spend more money, a partnership with RD Tuna was the best option as it would cost less to develop the PMIZ project. Meanwhile, once completed the PMIZ Project is expected to create employment for 10, 000 Papua New Guineans.  

PNG Power Limited (PPL) has confirmed that power supply has been restored to the Highlands Region after a fault along the transmission line from Ramu Hydro Power Station was fixed just recently. Previously, PNG Power workmen could not enter the area where the fault was located to carry out this urgent maintenance work last week because they faced some strong resistance from local landowners of the area, putting workmen’s lives at risk. According to PNG Power, arrangements had to be made with the police and military personnel on the ground to find an approach to the local landowners in order to allow PPL workmen to enter the area and carry out this urgent maintenance work. Fortunately, an understanding was reached and work started. It took more than a day to fix the fault along the line and once that was resolved, electricity was fully restored to Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Southern Highland and Enga provinces. Previously, these provinces had to undergo very heavy power load shedding from the 27th of September up to the start of the month of October.

PNG Power Limited (PPL) has been able to restore power supply to most parts of Madang that were affected by the massive 6.7 magnitude earthquake that rocked the province and neighboring provinces over the weekend. According to the State-owned power company, the focus was to restored power to the main areas like the hospitals, schools, police stations, provincial administration facilities and the local businesses. PNG Power also confirmed that there are still some areas that have no power yet like the areas along the main highways, but the company has assured that engineers are working on fixing that to ensure they too are restored with full electricity. PNG Power teams are now on the ground going round to inspect, identify damages and work on fixing them. There have been reports of fallen power lines and power poles that would require equipment and some time to fix them. The power company teams on ground will be supported by Port Moresby city and Lae city operational teams, whenever there is a need for specific equipment or parts, the Lae office should be able to send it over to the Madang team as soon as possible to use to restore full electricity to the earthquake affected communities. Meanwhile, PNG Power is advising the people to report any downed power poles or transmission lines immediately so to prevent any danger, and PPL teams can attend to it quickly. The public is urged to report these damages to PNG Power by contacting the National Call Centre on Toll- Free number 116, Email to callcentre@pngpower.com.pg or WhatsApp on 70001009.

Due to the damages caused to the airport runway at the Madang Airport from the 6.7 magnitude earthquake that rocked the province and its neighboring provinces over the weekend, airline services into Madang will be limited. For the national flag carrier Air Niugini, it has now temporarily downgraded its services to Madang to Dash 8 operations due to damage caused to part of the runway by the earthquake on Saturday October 7th. The airport authority, the National Airports Corporation (NAC) is currently working on a plan to fix the damages caused to the runway. Similarly, all Fokker and Boeing 737 flights to Mount Hagen have been downgraded to Dash8 aircraft due to maintenance works on the runway at Kagamuga airport. The airport runway is shortened to allow NAC to carry out maintenance and repair works on the runway. Air Niugini management will advise when jet operations into both Madang and Mt Hagen will resume. Air Niugini regrets the inconvenience caused to its customers, however the situation is beyond the airline’s control. Safety is always of paramount importance in the airline’s operations.

The OK Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) has thrown support behind the hosting of the big World Indigenous Business Forum (WIBF) coming up later this month with a K100, 000 sponsorship, recently presented to Department of International Trade and Investment. The OTML Manager Corporate Affairs, Mr. Dexter Wagambie said OTML was thankful for the opportunity to be part of WIBF. “OTML is a 100 per cent Papua New Guinea (PNG) owned entity with 67 per cent direct shareholding by the Independent State of PNG and the people of Western Province holding a 33 per cent interest." "This is a testament that we are a Papua New Guinean mine. We are having some challenges at the mine, but we still need to support our people, so we are coming on board as a bronze sponsor,” said Mr. Wagambie. “It is through hosting such an event that we will be able to give our SMEs and entrepreneurs the opportunity to participate in a global market." "We are privileged to participate in this event and to be part of the history." "If we did not come on board to participate then it would be an opportunity lost,” added Mr. Wagambie. Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru said he was extremely grateful for OK Tedi’s support. “OTML is the only mining company that we can say is ours. We need to build and own the next one; we cannot stop at one." "We are really hoping that one day OK Tedi will make a giant leap and 100 per cent own another mine; that will be really great for our country,” said Minister Maru. “OTML will have a booth and will nominate two delegates to attend the forum." "These are the benefits of being a sponsor to this event- you get to promote your company and you also get to attend the forum as delegates."