PNGBLOGS

by PAUL L. KEBAIJA A week after Prime Minister James Marape declared that suspensions of non-compliant agency heads would take "immediate effect", an internal circular from Chief Secretary Ivan Pomaleu reveals a different reality: not a single suspension has been executed, because not a single minister has done the paperwork. External Circular No 35/2026, dated 28 July and addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and all ministers, carries an extraordinary admission. "Following the Prime Minister's letter of 22 July 2026, we have not received any nomination," Pomaleu writes. Under NEC Decision 174/2026, each suspension requires ministers and boards to first nominate an acting deputy, triggering a Public Service Commission process, and until that happens, "the full and complete process" cannot begin. Marape's non-negotiable purge is, for now, a purge on paper, stalled by the same ministerial inertia it was meant to punish. The attached Department o...

The mounting trend of corruption at the National Planning Department remains unabated as Secretary Koney Samuel and his FAS – Corporate Services Division, Loma Pamea collaborate and collude to loot and rob the Department mercilessly. The few reported cases of fraudulent payments and corrupt deals by the two senior officers are believed to be only a tip of ice-bag. You could recall a K2 million cheque payment was reported to have been released in late 2018 to the Southern Highl ands Provincial Treasury, implying an element of strong intention to defraud the State through collusion and conspiracy by the two senior officers in connection with the handling of the payment. In that case, Secretary Koney Samuel and the FAS Loma Pamea were believed to have collaborated and colluded to fraudulently initiate, approve and release the K2 million payment knowing too well K1 million portion would eventually be transferred from the transiting Southern Highlands Provincial Government Ac...