The Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) is sending a message out to those who would engage in corrupt practices to be recruited that it will not hesitate to remove them from recruitment training if they are found to be involved. That message was shown today when the Defence Force hierarchy removed over 160 male and female trainee recruits from the Goldie River Training Depot outside Port Moresby, who were found to have entered without going through the proper checks and processes. The PNGDF Chief of Training, Colonel Dickers Esso, said they are implementing the Commander of Defence Force (CDF) Directive Number 16, which was signed on 30th June 2021. The Directive basically states that those found to enter the Force through illegal means, will be removed. “What we are doing now is something that our own personal branch or the HR branch would have done during that phase to identify those criteria and correct them. But unfortunately passed on the burden over to the training branch for us to accept and continue to run the training. This is not the first time and we have been setting a bad precedent,” said the Colonel. “That has gone too far, and we are putting our foot down to correct that process. We are saying that now we take the steps to ensure that those who meet the requirements can go through the training and serve our country.” Colonel Essos said the PNGDF is a state institution, and everyone can join, but must meet those requirements specified by the Defence Force. “We have allowed for abuse, and we have continuously let this go on, but we are saying enough is enough. We have to correct that process and ensure that those deserving young men and women can go through training.” “We have to send a signal that it’s not going to be an issue of corruption and abuse, it has to stop,” he added. The PNGDF is doing this to protect the recruitment system from corruption and abuse and restore some credibility in the system, that was lost over time. Meanwhile, a total 166 out of the 354 overall total of new recruits of the first 2021 intake, have been removed from training after being identified as not meeting certain requirements or have come in through fraudulent means. Also, the current Commanding Officer of the Goldie River Training Depot is currently on suspension until this matter is resolved.

In light of the recent workers protest on allegations that some companies are imposing the so called “no jab, no job” policy, the Business Council of Papua New Guinea (BCPNG) has come out to say that no company or business have Covid-19 workplace policies that forcefully remove employees who do not wish to be vaccinated. According to the BCPNG Executive Director Mr. Douveri Henao, workplace COVID-19 policies are there to protect the employees and to ensure the continuity of a business or a company’s operation. He went on to explain that Papua New Guinea’s work environment, unlike industrialized nations where most jobs are now automated, still involves human to human interactions, and with the main form of transmission of the virus being from person to person, it is important to protect the critical aspect of the organizations work, this includes the critical employees to the job and the critical functions of the job. “We on the other hand do not have that level of technology and infrastructure in most of our businesses and therefore, human to human operation is still paramount in many businesses across the country,” said Mr. Henao. This is the reason why many workplace have undergone extensive investments in ensuring there is no transmission of the virus in the workplace by placing hand sanitizers, maintaining social distancing and in some cases buying ventilators and testing. Mr. Henao also added that in extreme cases, entire hospitals have been built where those businesses are located. All these put together has seen upwards to K70, 000 to K9.5 million spent right across the entire market on investments in COVID prevention in the workplace for companies and businesses. But now with the availability of vaccines, he said vaccination may become an important part of workplace safety, especially with the critical workforce. “We have also surveyed critical employees and majority of them have already been vaccinated because they realize that it’s their role in their company that they need to protect the value chain.” “It is important to note that they were not forced, they actually did that out of their own free will,” he added. According to the Business Council’s recent survey on COVID-19 vaccination for business, 27% of Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors in the country have indicate that 60% to 90% are critical employees. 40% are females while 58% males. “Now that’s a significant number in terms of folks that need to do their utmost best that they do not get the virus or have transmission rates in their workplace.” Nevertheless, he said business and company managements cannot force employees to get vaccinated. “If they don’t want to get vaccination, then there are processes and procedures where they can shift into non- critical areas in the value chain, or in some cases, they have to automate that particular job because of its sensitivity, and the third scenario is that start employing people that are vaccinated to go work in these critical areas.” Picture: Mr. Douveri Henao

Digicel PNG in partnership with MiBank have put out a new joint service that will greatly benefit MiBank customers, through Digicel's Cell Moni service. Digicel's Senior Vice President and Chief Sales Officer, Lorna McPherson, said this will save time and make it easy for customers to do banking. She said this partnership will enable ease because most of the MiBank customers are also Digicel customers, which means MiBank customers will have access to more than 12, 000 Cell Moni agents throughout the country. “MiBank customers can repay their loans and contribute to their savings anytime and anywhere twenty-four seven using Cell Moni,” McPherson said. Apart from improving customer experience, this partnership also serves to improve financial inclusion in the country. “So, the partnership, along with the support of the bank of PNG, will support the financial inclusion plan for Papua New Guinea. The digital financial transformation objective can be fulfilled only when institutions work together.” MiBank Chief Operating Officer (COO) Mr. Trudi Egi, said the system integration between Cell Moni and MiBank is already online, and customers can now access it. “Any Cell Moni customer can go out to our branches to make a cash deposit or cash withdrawal,” said the COO.” “The integration also means that MiBank customers traveling to other province or are residing in provinces or communities that have no access to a MiBank branch or agent, can simply use a Digicel Cell Moni agent within their locality as an alternative to contribute to saving funds or making loan repayment.” “MiBank has the strong focus of providing digital financial services to eighty per cent unbanked PNG population residing in rural areas outside Port Moresby and Lae that may not necessarily have access to financial services.” “This integration is the kind of innovative digital financial service that can be offered to the unbanked population,” he added. Meanwhile, the launching of this joint service on Friday 03rd September in Port Moresby was significant because it also marked the 10 years of partnership between Digicel PNG and MiBank in their mobile money journey, since they partnered in 2011. “Digicel has been a strategic partner for MiBank since 2011 and MiBank is an existing agent to Cell Moni customers in each of our sixteen branches located nationwide,” said Mr. Egi. “It is on this note that MiBank is grateful and thanks Digicel for being its strategic partner in delivering digital financial services for the ten years, and this launch strengthens this partnership that has been built in these two great organizations and hopes to bring new heights for the next ten years of more.”

Soon to hit the market in the country is a new product that was launched yesterday by South Pacific (SP) Brewery dubbed the Heineken 0.0 (zero, zero). SP Managing Director Mr. Ed Weggemans, said this new product is a non- alcoholic beverage, meaning it has zero alcohol percentage in it. “Today South Pacific Brewery is launching Heineken 0.0. It is a malt lager, its real beer with no alcohol,” said the Managing Director. Mr. Weggemans said the product has had huge successes in all markets where it was launched before and fulfilled a consumer need that is driven by great innovation and brewery techniques. He said SP expects to replicate this success here in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) market. The distribution of this new product in PNG is also part of SP Brewery’s bold move to address issues affecting the society, such as promoting responsible consumption and choices, addressing harmful use of alcoholic products, and promoting moderate consumption of alcohol. “The non-alcohol beer segment is non- existent in Papua New Guinea, our ambition is to link the category development here with a premium proposition from a brand that consumers are proud to be seen with,” said Mr. Weggemans. “We take our responsibility extremely seriously and although Heineken 0.0 does not contain alcohol, we do not target consumers below the legal drinking age.” SP Brewery now joins 59 other Heineken operating companies who have introduced this zero-alcohol product in the markets. The Heineken 0.0 will soon be distributed to shops, bars, and restaurants in both Lae and Port Moresby cities. [caption id="attachment_14342" align="aligncenter" width="707"] Pictured: L to R, Sergey Penchev is SP Brewery's Marketing Manager posing with Mr Ed Weggemans, the Managing Director. [/caption]

The working class will continue to be taxed highly for personal income tax for some time until the country’s economy picks up. This is because the reduction of the personal income tax rate for the working class at this time would be impossible as the country's development and recurrent budget depends heavily on it. That's the response from the Prime Minister (PM) James Marape to the Member for North Fly district James Donald in parliament, when the member asked about possible ways to reduce the rate of personal income tax at a time when the country is in a bad economic state induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. “What I think is that we should cut down the tax for personal income tax for everyone, reduce it down to half and what we can do is we can put up a mechanism to control the collection and collect the envelope, because the moment you cut tax you give the purchasing power to the people. Our people will have enough money to spend,” said the member for North Fly. The PM in response said the personal income tax has gone past corporate tax and the GST (Goods and Services Tax) over time to be the leading tax revenue source for the country. “It means that our workers are now supporting the country; however, at this stage we cannot afford to make this very critical call as yet,” said the PM. “The demand for money to service our development aspirations as well as recurrent aspirations for us in the country is almost at seventeen to nineteen billion Kina each year, but the actual money we collect in our country is about ten billion Kina. So, it will be irresponsible for me to just say drop the personal income tax.” “When our economy is bigger and corporate tax picks us up and the economy is expended, then we can look into areas to cut our personal income tax. If we reduce it, then the revenue envelope that we collect around ten or eleven billion Kina will come down,” said Marape. However, Marape said there are initiatives being taken by the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) and the government to ensure the tax burden is shared to with the corporate sector as well so that in the near future, the reduction of income tax can be a possibility. He said the IRC has started reforming and will bring everybody into the tax radar, so that those companies that have been avoiding paying tax, will be ordered to start paying their corporate taxes. This will then level the playing field where the tax burden can be shared.

A new national health plan will be launched in the coming months that would address the woes in the health sector, including the issue of the shortage of medical work force in the country. Health Minister Jelta Wong said the government through this plan would double the work force through training and certifying them to work. Minister Wong made this statement when responding to questions from the member for Pomio, Mr. Elias Kapavore, on this matter in parliament today. Kapavore said Papua New Guinea (PNG) has about five hundred medical officers today servicing the public health system. “We have a population of about 8 to 9 million people in the country. The UPNG school of medicine can only produce up to forty to fifty medical officers every year and this hasn’t changed since 1959.” Mr. Kapavore said with the current rate of population growth, there is a need to really beef up the medical workforce in the country. “Apart from medical officers, we still have a critical shortage of human resource in the country, in other categories of health workers. At the moment, according to WHO statistics, we have a ratio of approximately five health workers serving a population of about ten thousand. He added that with new health facilities, health centres and aid posts being established, there must be a focus to put in medical officers in these facilities to serve the people. Minister Wong replied that the government has a new National Health Plan 2021- 2030 that will be released soon and will address this matter along with other issues in the health sector. “What we intend to do in the plan is to ensure that we double our workforce within our country. Whilst we are building infrastructure in the country, we’ve also put in thought our people within nursing schools,” said the minister. “That is why the bill that I will present next week is a very important bill, it’s the medical registration bill. It allows those students to be eligible to work within our country.” We also have plans together with High Education. We’ll be sitting down in the coming months to work out how we can work together to ensure that we push into the future training and skills for our people. Minister Wong said he will explain in detail when he reads his statement on the plan and the bill next week Tuesday, 17th August.

Hela Governor, Philip Undialu, commended the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) Limited for the policy changes regarding the payment of royalties and dividends for landowners which allowed for transparency in the disbursement of funds. Undialu said one notable change or shift in the policy is the requirement for landowner clans to create and open their own bank accounts to enable the money to be put in the respective accounts for the people to use. “This is one big change and I appreciate the MRDC for making this happen for the landowners,” he said. The other notable change is the period of which a board chairman or director of a landowner company sits in office, which is just four years according to the governor. After that a new person will be appointed to one of those positions. “You provide good leadership; the people will trust you and you would be elected to the position after four years.” Undialu said this would ensure no individual would sit for a very long time in the position and would also be fair as the various clans can all have their own representatives elected to the positions. “The changes MRDC made is to ensure that accountability, leadership and responsibility is upon us to manage the money well,” said the governor. Governor Undialu was speaking at the payment ceremony held in Benaria in the Komo Magarima district over the weekend for the royalty and dividend payments of a combined total of K3.76million, to segments 2 and 3 landowners of the PNGLNG Pipeline license No. 4(PL4) area.

Development and service will not reach the people despite funding support unless there is peace and harmony in the community to pave way for resources to be used to improve the lives of the people. This was the direct message given by the Governor for Hela Province Philip Undialu to his people, when urging them to use the money given to them from the PNG LNG project wisely for their own benefit. Undialu, who was at the ceremony held in Benaria in the Komo Magarima district yesterday for the royalty and dividend payment to segments 2 and 3 landowners of the PNGLNG Pipeline license No. 4(PL4) area, urged the people and the leaders of warring tribes to come together, make peace and work together to improve their livelihoods through improving things likes schools, health facilities, roads infrastructures, and get into business activities. “I don’t want this money to be used to buy bullets and guns. This money is a blessing, so I want you to look at paying school fees and look at your needs,” said the governor. Undialu said this because the area continues to see a lot of tribal conflicts with a lot of lives lost over the years, but now with this huge payment, he wants the people to change and work together for what is best for everyone. Meanwhile, the total combined royalty and equity/dividend payment is about K3.76million. The Equity and dividend payment is for the period 2014 to 2016, while the royalty is for the period of 2014 to 2018. These payments follow the completion of bank account opening for each benefitting clan with the support of the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC), and the appointment of a director to the board of the landowner company, to pave way for payment of the benefits. The Gas Resources PNGLNG Pipeline Limited Board, later announced the approval of the combined payment to be paid to project area landowners. Of the total combined amount, 40% of total royalty and equity benefits is available to them. 30% is allocated for the Community Infrastructure Trust Fund (CITF) and another 30% is for Future Trust for investment purposes, which is a requirement of the Oil and Gas Act. Dividends for subsequent years will be paid once the audit of the accounts are completed up to the last financial year. Royalties will also be paid once they are received from State. Segments 2 and 3 covers the Benaria and Homo-Paua regions and consists of 174 benefitting clans. These areas are part of the eight segment areas, which are PNG LNG project impacted areas.

AFL PNG is going rural in Central Province to seek talent and spread the footy code through the Australian Football League (AFL) rural competition planned for various villages, starting off with the Keapara village competition. AFL PNG Senior Football Operations Manager, Mr. Rex Leka said the launching of the rural competition is also part of the initiative to teach the youngsters through the AFL Junior Development program. The program will run alongside the competitions so to get the kids and youths interested in the sport. “We aim to spread AFL to the rural areas so we can identify the raw talents and give them the opportunity to play footy in a major league,” he said. Mr. Leka said the launching for the Keapara village competition will take place tomorrow, Saturday 07th August. The village has eight teams that will be participating in their own competition. The PNG AFL Commission and the Port Moresby AFL Association are supporting this rural competition initiative and will be co- launching the rural competition tomorrow. Mr. Leka confirmed that AFL PNG will also be looking at spreading the code to the Kairuku- Hiri district next. The current focus now is on villages in the Rigo district.

Kina Securities Ltd (KSL), through Kina Bank, will be challenging the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) decision in its Draft Determination on its proposed decline of authorization for Kina Bank to acquire Westpac PNG’s shares. Kina Bank’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Greg Pawson, said the draft determination, which was issued by the ICCC late last week, is the first stage in a three-stage process and is largely based on feedback and objections from several organizations invited by the ICCC to respond. “Stage two of the process is a consultation session scheduled for the 11th of August. Stage three is a final submission by Westpac and KSL due 20th August.  We then anticipate a final determination by the ICCC at some point in September,” said Mr. Pawson. “We will be challenging the ICCC draft determination vehemently. We think we have a very strong proposition to increase competition and at the same time strengthen the financial services sector in PNG.” On 17th March 2021, KSL applied to the ICCC seeking authorization for its proposal to acquire 89.91% shares in Westpac PNG. The ICCC conducted public consultations on this proposed acquisition before completing its assessment. Meanwhile, ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Paulus Ain, explained in a statement that after taking into consideration KSL’s authorization application and submission, including comments from relevant stakeholders and available market information, the ICCC proposed to decline authorization for the proposed acquisition. “For the reasons outlined in its draft determination, the ICCC is not satisfied that this proposed acquisition would not have, and would not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening of competition in the relevant markets; and is not satisfied that the proposed acquisition will result, or will be likely to result, in such a benefit to the public that it should be authorized,” Mr. Ain said. Mr. Ain further added that the parties and other stakeholders have been given the opportunity to comment on the Draft Determination through a conference to be held on the 11th of August.

The Gerehu Magpies and the Waigani Tigers are the two teams left out of the start of the Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) season proper over weekend, and they may have to merge if they are to participate in this year’s competition. According to Mr. John Lavu, the Patron and Founder of the Gerehu Magpies, most of their boys have gone to play rugby union, but the remaining ones could be put together and merge with the boys from the Tigers, to form one team. Mr. Lavu said the Port Moresby AFL Association suggested this so that they can still compete this season. The President, Mr. Douglas Lai also confirmed this. He said this is one option that the association is looking at to ensure teams are given the chance to compete. “There is a possibility of merging the two teams, but if that doesn’t take place, we will get the Gerehu Magpies to join the Swans and form the A grade side with a couple of good talents we’ve seen in the Swans boys, and the rest of them can form the Reserve grade side for the Swans team for this year only,” said the president. “Those are the options we are looking at, but we will try to get the Gerehu Magpies and Waigani Tigers merger going.” He added that once a merger is confirmed this weekend, the association will have them on the men’s competition starting next week.

Papua New Guinean’s champion female weightlifter, Dika Toua, has just completed competing in her 5th Olympic Games. She finished 4th in group B of the 49kg category, snatching 72kg and Clean and Jerked 95kg, lifting a total of 167kgs. She is Team PNG’s first athlete to compete in the Women’s 49kg event today. The weightlifter’s participation also made history in the sport of Weightlifting as she now becomes the first female Weightlifter to compete in five Olympic Games. Meanwhile according to Team PNG, seven PNG athletes are yet to compete in their respective competitions in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.