PNG Opposition calls on Auditor General to investigate LNG proceeds

PORT MORESBY: The office of the Auditor General has come under fire from the Opposition in what it believes that ‘the constitutional office has been either compromised or politicized.’
Its leader Don Pomb Polye has urged the auditor general to ‘wake up from his slumber and start to investigate those responsible.’

“Where has K3 to K4 billion from the LNG proceeds gone to?It is shocking that our people’s gas monies are missing in the 2016 budget.

“The Opposition’s study of the 2016 Budget documents shows neither a clear indication of where the proceeds are kept, nor where they will have been spent on,” Mr Polye said yesterday when speaking at a gathering in the Central provincial government headquarter in Konedobu, Port Moresby.
According to the 2016 Budget book Volume 1,he said PNG sold 336,000 tcf of gas in 2015 at a price of US$12.4/tcf.
He said this would mean the revenue next year would be around K12 billion to K13 billion (336,000 x US$12.4 = US$4,166.4 million).

He has queried where the people’s money from LNG proceeds was.
“The Government needs to inform Papua New Guineans where their revenues are and where these funds will be applied,” said a concerned Polye.

He said the revenues had all been directed by ‘the Prime Minister through the State’s Paper Company, National Petroleum Company (NPCP) to an escrow account in Singapore to repay the K3 billion UBS loan’.

“Not a single toea has been paid to the State, the five Provincial Governments or the landowners contravening the Umbrella Benefit Sharing Agreement (UBSA) and the Landowner Benefit Sharing Agreement (LBSA),” said Mr Polye.
He said good governance and transparency had been compromised by the government.