PNG Opposition says, Non-payment of UN member fee is yet another sign of Economy crisis

PORT MORESBY: The country’s non-payment of annual membership to the United Nations Organisation is yet another sign and symptom of the cash flow crisis.

Papua New Guinea’s Opposition Leader Don Pomb Polye said this following a suspension of its voting right in the UNO due to non-payment of its membership fee of US$180,000.

Polye said the suspension culminated with the country’s overseas missions being at the brink of closure associated with the same.

“The country is broke yet Prime Minister and his Foreign Affairs minister have masked it as usual. This is the glaring truth.”

“The government pays more than K300 million as membership fees to similar other international organisations. I will not be surprised to see them facing the same issue in the months ahead,” a concerned Polye said.

The government, he said, has been resorting to all the trust funds to sort out such debt after all other normal fund reservoirs were depleted due to the economic crisis.

Mr Polye, a former Foreign Affairs Minister, slams the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill for his ‘infamous blame game’ in which him putting more pressure on the Department of Foreign Affairs for this.

“He is the CEO of the country. He must be the one calling the shots through his minister responsible in a timely manner to avoid international shame such as this.

“The whole saga indicates that the Prime Minister’s mind is NOT focused on running the country’s affairs,” he said.

He said the suspension emerged at the time when PNG striving to become an international player, adding it brought the country’s capacity to host the APEC summit next year into question.

“If I he was the Prime Minister, I would step down from office in shame. Our people know that O’Neill lacks moral duty.

“A series of non-payment of bills is a brand common to the O’Neill-Dion government,” said Polye.

He cited that PNG Power limited had cut electricity supply to a several fellow state agencies, including the Governor-General’s office and the National Parliament.

The government, he said, also failed to pay its debts owed to a several consultant firms from New Zealand.

“Amongst the government’s debt list are the reported food shortage at Baisu jail in the Western Highlands and an unprecedented delay in public service salary,” he said.

The Opposition Leader calls on his fellow citizens to brace for tougher economic conditions ahead inflicted on them by the government, saying the worst is looming.