Police Commissioner David Manning has commended the Water Police for intercepting and confiscating 20 kilograms of marijuana bound for Kimbe, West New Britain, via Lae, on Wednesday in Port Moresby. A total of six plastic packs of marijuana was on board MV Momase ready to be shipped to Kimbe when members of the Water Police Directorate, acted on a tip-off, and intercepted the drugs. Water Police Director Chief Inspector Chris Smith said initially a female student from Goroka School of Nursing was framed in the ordeal and the three main suspects escaped. He said the three suspects saw police and escaped. However, they were later tracked down after five hours and arrested. “They are currently behind bars and appropriate charges will be laid,” Mr Smith said. Commissioner Manning said, “A specialist police unit has been formed to deal with drug syndicates and illicit substances and so far, the team has made great progress in a number of operations. “I’m warning those who are involved in distributing and consuming such illicit substances, once you are caught you will be severely dealt with under the new laws of the country.”

Members of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary today welcomed a delegation of the Indonesian National Police who are in the country for bilateral consultation meetings with the Constabulary. The head of the International Relations Division of the Indonesian National Police, Inspector General Krishna Murti, S.I.K, M. Si, led the Indonesian delegation. He began his three-day visit to Papua New Guinea. Inspector General Krishna Murti was given a Guard of Honour and Cross-Arms today at the National Police Headquarters in Port Moresby. The event was witnessed by the senior officers of the Constabulary. Chief of Staff to the Police Commissioner, Commander Steven Francis, said the Indonesia National Police delegation’s visit highlights the importance and the value of the meeting between the two police organisations. Mr Francis said the bilateral meeting will strengthen the Indonesian National Police and the Constabulary’s cooperation and will also shape pathways for future arrangements. “Our discussions will also update and review the expired Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in 2015 between the two countries on cooperation in preventing and combating Transnational Crimes and capacity building. The MoU framework provides a pathway to identify common activities for both police organisations. “Given the current security challenges and law and order issues encountered by both countries along the PNG Indonesian borders, this bilateral meeting overlays arrangements which will collectively address these challenges,” Mr Francis said. Mr Francis said both countries require collaboration and partnership arrangements to collectively address the issues of transnational crimes.

More than 1,000 survivors of family and sexual violence, many of whom are children, have directly sought medical and psychosocial treatment at the ANGAU Memorial Provincial Hospital’s refurbished Family Support Centre (FSC) in Lae since it opened in March 2019. Prior to the new building, the FSC could only assist about 15 people a day. Now the Centre can assist an additional 12 people a day while maintaining privacy and offering a safe space for survivors. FSC Nurse Manager, Sister Anastacia Wakon, said the poor condition of the previous building impeded the FSC staff’s ability to respond to the increasing number of survivors presenting for treatment. The facility was too small for the number of clients treated, the roof leaked, and the center flooded when it rained. Now, with the improved space, Sister Wakon and her team can treat survivors and provide counselling, thus meeting their physical and mental health needs. The center provides a private and safe place for patients before, during, and after admission. Purposefully located at the rear of the hospital campus, the FSC’s position allows discrete access for survivors seeking assistance and protection from perpetrators. “Our services are available from 8am till 4pm however those presenting outside of these hours go through the emergency ward and rape survivors are referred to the Family Support Centre emergency on call staff who handle such cases after hours, especially to administer post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) within 72 hours and emergency contraceptive pills (ECP) within 120 hours,” said Sister Wakon. Addressing the needs of the most vulnerable in the community is a crucial element of the ANGAU Hospital. For this reason, the Redevelopment project managers consulted FSC staff during the design phase, and consideration was given to features including secure fencing, an air-locked pre-admission screening area, a secured waiting area, screened patient deck, and separate access point for direct vehicle entry or exit. The building design maximizes the use of natural lighting and ventilation and provides a welcoming space. “Having this new facility has significantly contributed toward addressing the issues of family and sexual violence in Morobe, Momase Region and in Papua New Guinea. I’m very grateful to the Australian and PNG governments and I am encouraged because I feel that my team and I are now empowered to give our best and to reach out to the survivors and the community,” said Sister Wakon. The ANGAU Hospital Redevelopment is Australia’s single biggest infrastructure investment in Papua New Guinea, but it is more than just a building, the focus of the project is to respond to needs and enable the highest standard of care.

Athletics teams from all regions of PNG are descending on Port Moresby this week for the PNG Air sponsored 61ST National Track and Field Championships . Thirteen provinces will be represented at the Championships, though this includes Sandaun and Western Province which only have a token presence of one athlete each. A total of 210 male and 100 female athletes have been nominated , with a total of 16 teams representing NCD , Central , Oro , Sandaun , Western , East Sepik , Morobe , Eastern Highlands , Simbu , Lae , East New Britain , West New Britain and New Ireland. APNG President Tony Green thanked all the teams for submitting their entries in advance and re affirmed that no further entries will be accepted after the final deadline of 5pm Thursday. Green said it was essential that every team send a delegate to the technical meeting at the sir john Guise at 1pm on Friday to receive important information about the event and reconfirm their final entries. Green thanked major sponsors PNG Air and Prima Smallgoods and a host of other sponsors and supporters including Panamex Pacific, PNG Olympic Committee , PNG Sports Foundation and HP. He also acknowledged Kumul Consolidated Holdings for their support of National Squad athletes through PNG Olympic Committee. Competition is scheduled to kick off at 2pm on Friday with heats of the 800m , 400m and the 5000m races. Saturday will see action in the 100m , 400m , 1500m and the 3000m steeplechase whereas Sundays track events will include the 200m , 800m , 3000m and the 10000m. Many of PNG’s top throws athletes will be in action including Lakona Gerega, Sharon Toako and Jacklyn travertz, with 2015 Pacific Games Rep Jane Pulu also participating. Throws will also be conducted for the Para athletes including Javelin , Discus and Shot put for both ambulant and seated. These events have been made possible through the support of the active throws training group in Port Moresby under coach Paul Bannister. Strong competition is expected in the mens middle and long distance events as athletes gear up for the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst. The 5000m in particular will be very competitive with Abel Siune , Wilford Baia, Sune Kagl , James Kuadua and Israel Takap all showing good form in lead up races. Scholastica Herman is expected to dominate the womens middle distance events and will be aiming to break one or two junior records in what will be her last major event as a junior athlete (Under 20). Herman has shown outstanding form in recent training sessions as a memorable year for her draws to a close,completing sessions such as 12*200m in 30 to 31 seconds on grass with only 2.5min recovery between each. Christina Moiyang , Mirram Toby and Jeminah Mondo from Simbu will compete with Mary Tenge and Ongan awa in the 5000m. Olympian Rellie Kaputin flew in from Brisbane yesterday with Herman and is expected to take part in the 100m and Long Jump. \ However PNG’s star athlete is understandably apprehensive about jumping at the Sir John Guise stadium after breaking a bone in her foot there in 2019. The mens 400m is always one of the highlights of any national championships as this has always been PNG’s strongest event. Benjamin Aliel has already thrown down the gauntlet with an impressive 47.9 sec clocking two weeks ago, however Daniel Baul has been quietly preparing at NSI in Goroka. Both Adolf Kauba and newcomer Lot Samare from New Ireland will add quality to this event. Athletics PNG will be on the look out for new talent to strengthen its training squad for the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara and have been urging visiting teams to ensure that those athletes with outstanding potential make it to Port Moresby. This is also the case for 15 and 16 year old athletes with the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games only nine months away.Athletics will be selecting athletes for this event after the Championships.

The U.S. government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is increasing its support to the fisheries sector in Papua New Guinea through its new project, OurFish OurFuture. Through its implementation partner, World Wildlife Fund PNG, the project held a national inception workshop on December 8. The workshop assessed the current ecosystem-based fisheries management status for PNG and identified gaps where the OurFish OurFuture program can usefully contribute to improving coastal fisheries management, compliance and enforcement, improving private and public partnerships, and improving the resilience of key actors, including youth and women. “The implementation approach for this program is unique. It will use a community-centered approach to ensure maximum impact and that the people and communities are a core focus of the OurFish OurFuture program,” said USAID Chargé d’Affaires, Mr. Joseph Zadrozny while opening the event. “This community-based management approach demonstrates USAID’s commitment to empower local communities to design and lead initiatives to manage your own resources and improve your own well-being.” The project will also identify potential members of a national advisory committee that will steer the implementation of the program in PNG over the next four years. The OurFish OurFuture program aims to address the drivers of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing that are degrading coastal fisheries and biodiversity and negatively impacting local livelihoods, food stability, and maritime security in the Pacific Islands region.

The Investment Promotion Authority is calling on business houses, corporate Organisations, small and medium enterprises and the general public, to look out for new changes in the display and content of its newly launched online registry service as it undergoes transition. In addressing participants at the PNG Mining and Petroleum Conference in Sydney Australia, Managing Director of the IPA Mr. Clarence Hoot alerted companies of the need to re-register their companies to avoid them being struck off the new upgraded online registry system. Mr. Hoot said. “Re-registration is free and a window of one year period from 1 December 2022, will be given for clients to update all their company records for free. Companies who fail to re-register within this period will have their companies struck off the IPA business/company registry,” . The IPA’s new and upgraded online registry service went live on the 1st of December 2022 with additional features for users to manage their company records and also register entities. The IPA is informing its clients that there will be some teething-in issues from the Go-Live date and cautioned its clients that not all data would be available at this stage. The Authority will continue to provide updates on what is happening and what is expected from them as part of embracing the new changes. Since the new system went live, the IPA has ceased accepting hard copies of forms lodged to renew or update business records. It is only accepting paper forms for the registration of new entities. Existing entities will be able to update their data online once the data migration process has been completed. During this period the IPA will waive any late filing fees for companies whose annual returns are due during this period. Clients who have an existing online account should expect an email from the system prompting them to create new passwords for their accounts. Those with prepaid accounts are not able to access their accounts at this stage as the account balances are being migrated at the moment. The IPA continues to embrace ICT to modernize its systems and processes to to be on par with the current global trends in doing business.

PNG singer and songwriter Danielle has been crowned Pacific Break's 2022 winner, the first female artist to take out the top prize in the competition's history. This year’s judges unanimously awarded the prize to her song Fight which tells the story of West Papuans’ fight for freedom. "I wasn't expecting it," Danielle said when she found out she won. "It means so much to me because it's been a really hard road." Source: ABC Pacific

Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) welcomes the appropriation of K50 million to commence work at Central Provincial Hospital. PMGH is currently overburdened by patients from the National Capital District (NCD), Central and Gulf Provinces as well as referrals from outside Port Moresby. Patients lining up in cues to receive healthcare services are always a concern at PMGH. Once the Central Hospital is completed, PMGH will be able to offload 300 of its current 1, 200 beds, reduce the loads at the maternity section, Emergency Department and many other sections of the hospital. The National Capital District Provincial Health Authority (NCDPHA), National Capital District Commission (NCDC) and the Government of Papua New Guinea also need to start work on the NCDPHA Level 5 hospital to offload another 300 beds. Offloading of primary and secondary care will allow PMGH to deliver its tertiary health care as mandated under the National Health Plan (NHP) 2021-2030. Quality specialized health care can be provided to the people of PNG with a manageable bed number of 600-700. Source: Port Moresby General Hospital

A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives. The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. were found guilty on all charges they faced. Donald Trump and his family were not charged in this case, but the former president was mentioned repeatedly during the trial by prosecutors about his connection to the benefits doled out to certain executives, including company-funded apartments, car leases and personal expenses. The Trump Organization could face a maximum of $1.61 million in fines when sentenced in mid-January. The company is not at risk of being dismantled because there is no mechanism under New York law that would dissolve the company. However, a felony conviction could impact its ability to do business or obtain loans or contracts. The guilty verdict comes as Trump is under scrutiny by federal and state prosecutors for his handling of classified documents, the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, and the accuracy of the Trump Organization’s business records and financial statements. He is also facing a $250 million civil lawsuit from the New York attorney general alleging he and his adult children were involved in a decade long fraud. The attorney general is seeking to permanently bar them from serving as an officer or director of a company in New York state, among other penalties. Trump Org. attorneys said they plan to appeal. “This was a case about greed and cheating,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “The Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes. Today’s verdict holds these Trump companies accountable for their long-running criminal scheme.” CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said Bragg’s approach has been vindicated. “Obviously, this is a setback for the Trump Org. – a major setback for the Trump Org. They’ve now been found guilty of criminal conduct, criminal tax fraud,” Honig told CNN’s Victor Blackwell on “Newsroom.” “It’s also a victory of sorts for the Manhattan district attorney,” Honig said. “Their theory, now, that part of the income for employees, including Allen Weisselberg, was paid through fringe benefits in order to avoid tax liability – that theory has been vindicated.” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the jury in closing arguments that Trump “explicitly sanctioned” tax fraud and urged them to reject the defense’s argument that former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was a rogue employee motivated by his own personal greed. “This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not true,” Steinglass said. The jury heard that Trump agreed on a whim to pay the private school tuition for his Weisselberg’s grandchildren and signed a lease for a Manhattan apartment to shorten the executive’s commute. Trump personally signed his employees’ bonus checks at Christmas time and he initialed a memo reducing the salary of another top executives, which prosecutors said suggested he knew all along about the fraudulent scheme. Prosecutors alleged for years top executives reduced their reported salaries by the amount of company-issued fringe benefits to avoid paying the required taxes. Weisselberg, who is on paid leave from the company, spent three days on the witness stand. He pleaded guilty to 15 felonies for failing to pay taxes on $1.76 million in income. As part of his plea deal, he will be sentenced to five months in jail if the judge finds that he testified truthfully. Trump Org. attorney Susan Necheles pledged to appeal, laying all the blame for any wrongdoing on Weisselberg. “Why would a corporation whose owner knew nothing about Weisselberg’s personal tax returns be criminally prosecuted for Allen Weisselberg’s personal conduct, for which they had no visibility or oversight? This case was unprecedented and legally incorrect,” Necheles said in a statement. “We will appeal this verdict.” Weisselberg’s key testimony In his testimony Weisselberg admitted he should have paid taxes on compensation, totaling roughly $200,000 in one year, which included a luxury Manhattan apartment overlooking the Hudson River, two Mercedes Benz car leases, parking, utilities, furniture and private school tuition for his grandchildren. He also testified that he paid himself and other executives’ bonuses as though they were independent consultants – enabling the Trump companies to evade paying taxes on them. Weisselberg testified that he pulled off the scheme with the help of his underling, Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney. McConney, who received immunity for testifying before the grand jury, admitted to some of the illegal conduct in his testimony. After Trump was elected president, Weisselberg testified, there was a “clean up” and many of the illegal practices stopped. He revealed conversations he had with Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., but told the jury when questioned by the Trump attorneys that he did not scheme or conspire with anybody in the Trump family. Weisselberg became emotional at times, telling the jury he was “embarrassed” by his conduct and that he “betrayed” the Trump family, who has been his employer for 49 years. Prosecutors and defense attorneys called out Weisselberg’s split loyalties – wanting to live up to his plea deal and serve a lower jail sentence and his loyalty to the Trump family, who could pay him $1 million in compensation this year. ‘In behalf of’ To prove the company’s guilt, prosecutors needed to demonstrate that Weisselberg or McConney was a “high managerial agent” who committed the crimes in the scope of his employment and “in behalf of” the company. Prosecutors and defense lawyers went in circles arguing over what “in behalf of” meant. Judge Juan Merchan also struggled over how to explain the phrase to the jury and turned to two legal treaties to fashion a definition. The judge explained it to the jury, saying, “Under the definition of ‘in behalf of,’ it is not necessary that the criminal acts actually benefit the corporation. But an agent’s acts are not ‘in behalf of’ a corporation if they were undertaken solely to advance the agents own interest. Put another way, if the agent’s acts were taken merely for personal gain, they were not ‘in behalf of’ the corporation.” Alan Futerfas, an attorney for the Trump Payroll Corporation, told reporters following the verdict the conclusion was incorrect. “A novel and really interesting issue developed during the trial. Obviously, the definition of ‘in behalf of’ – what that means. And we filed a lot of papers, the defense team, about what those words mean,” Futerfas said. “The judge recognized there was not a lot of definition on that at all and surely that will be one of the arguments we will make.” Weisselberg walked a fine line in his testimony, telling the jury he never wanted to hurt the company, he was driven by greed and mainly wanted to pay less in taxes. But, he also said, he knew at the time the company would benefit to some degree from his schemes. In his testimony Weisselberg said, “It was a benefit to the company but primarily it was due to my greed.” He told the jury that the company saved money by paying less taxes on his off-the-books compensation and acknowledged when asked by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger if, while his primary goal was to avoid taxes, it also created a benefit to the company. “To some degree, yes,” Weisselberg testified. Weisselberg said he and McConney knew at the time that the company would pay less payroll taxes through the scheme although he said they never discussed it explicitly. The Trump attorneys argued, repeatedly, to the jury that “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg” to emphasize that he was motivated solely by his personal greed. On cross examination, Weisselberg agreed that the decision to not pay taxes was his and made solely to benefit himself. “That was my intent,” Weisselberg said when questioned by the Trump attorneys, “to benefit myself.” The lawyers for the Trump entities called just one fact witness, the real estate companies’ long-time accountant Donald Bender from Mazars USA, which dropped Trump as a client earlier this year. Trump attorneys said Bender was either aware of the off-the-books compensation or should have caught the tax fraud and they accused him of lying on the stand. When questioned by prosecutors Bender testified that he trusted and relied on Weisselberg, who testified that he hid the illegal scheme. Steinglass, the prosecutor, told the jury the Trump companies were guilty, and the illegal scheme was concocted “so the employees can get more net pay while costing the Trump Corporation less. It’s a win-win – unless you’re the tax authorities.” Source: CNN News

67 government officers from the East New Britain Provincial Government (ENBPG) are now certified Training of Trainers (TOT) under the Center for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI). The officers from Kokopo, Gazelle and Rabaul districts graduated yesterday afternoon after undergoing a three weeks-long training in Kokopo. The participants covered two modules Savings and Budgeting. The training was facilitated by CEFI principal trainer Jill Pijui while representatives from CEFI Special Project Manager Jeremiah Wenogo were present to witnessed the graduation and present the certificates. Doing the welcome remarks yesterday for the official opening of the program Advisor of the division of Commerce Rosemary Murure said that upon the ENBPG expression of interest in financial literacy as a fundamental skills capacity in financial education for the average people in communities, the PEC passed a policy in May 2021, for ENBPA to participate in the roll out of Financial Inclusion Services in the province in collaboration with finance institutions. Mrs Murure said the training is the first so far in the province following the signing of MOU between the ENBPG and CEFI last year. On behalf of the provincial government she said they are thankful that finally the province got CEFI onboard as one of the development pathway in the province which the ENB Financial Inclusive Policy is currently rolled out with anticipated total commitment and participation from the four districts and the 18 LLG administrations. “If ENB is talking about ward focus development than financial inclusion is a basic financial management tool for our ordinary people in the villages” she said. Mrs Murure added that if the province is talking about growing the local economy and this program is important so that families are equip with skills on how to manage their finance. She congratulates the participants and challenged them to go back to their own wards and run similar financial literacy training to people at the ward. Mr Wenogo explained that the training is not another normal training but it is derived from a national government policy and one of the key strategy is that CEFI has to deliver is the financial literacy training. The financial literacy training is one of the major activities among other activities CEFI is rolling out and urged all to make use of the skills and knowledge to others and in their wards.

The National Superannuation Fund (nasfund) this week engaged with its membership representatives at the 16th PNG Mining & Petroleum Investment Conference. Nasfund Chief Executive Officer Ian Tarutia led the Fund delegation to this event, which brought together organizations from across the Resource & Energy sector in Papua New Guinea. “The 16th PNG Mining & Petroleum Investment Conference & Exhibition provided an opportunity to engage once again with industry organizations, most of whom are our contributing employers on behalf of their staff. The event also provided a venue for Prime Minister Marape and key Ministers for Investment & Trade, Mining and Petroleum to outline Governments policy and support for the mining and petroleum sector. Through the theme “PNG Resources: Securing the Next Wave of Responsible Investment” the Fund was fortunate to meet with Industry leaders to understand the current state of play as well as changing dynamics of this critically important economic sector. It was pleasing to note that activities in the industry are slowly picking up, in anticipation of the commencement of operations for several projects. As the leading superannuation provider in PNG, nasfund stands ready to support the resource & energy industries to provide retirement savings services to our membership, both present and future. This event also allowed the Fund to gauge the level of interest in investing in PNG, which allows us to consider investment opportunities, which can provide long-term returns for members. We would like to commend the PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum for facilitating this event.

Nambawan Super officially opened its recently relocated Daru Branch today, as part of its continued focus on improving Member access to superannuation services in rural centers around the Country. The Branch was opened yesterday, by Nambawan Super Member representatives including Nurses, Police and Teachers, alongside Nambawan Super Limited (NSL) CEO, Mr. Paul Sayer. The Branch is now conveniently located in the Callan Services Resource Centre, Daru. Mr. Sayer advised that, “the Nambawan Super Daru Branch is now within walking distance to local schools, Government offices, key state institutions and several other businesses which employ many of our Members in Daru”. “The relocation exercise and opening of this Branch is part of the Nambawan Super strategy to bring services closer to our Members’ doorsteps.” “The Branch has also been upgraded to improve on Members’ experience and ensure our staff have everything they need to deliver quality services. It will have the same welcoming look and feel that is now the standard for all our Branches Countrywide, to ensure that our Members receive the same level of services wherever they are”. “The Branch is able to accommodate up to 15 Members with 3 counters attended by our Member Service Officers; 1 self service counter for ease of access; and 1 comfortable meeting room that provides privacy for Members when discussing their superannuation benefits and retirement savings with us.” “The Branch is also fully air-conditioned, has improved staff and Member amenities, and it utilises a backup genset for the best Member experience for our over 3000 plus Members that live and work in Daru and the wider South Fly District within Western Province”, he added. Nambawan Super has 22 offices across the Country which play an integral role in bringing valuable superannuation services to Members in both rural and urban settings “Western Province is a significant contributor to the economy of Papua New Guinea, and Daru has a high potential for growth. We aim to continue supporting the people of Daru and Western Province by accessing our valuable superannuation products and services”, Mr. Sayer noted. “The Fund works hard through its investments to generate strong returns on Members’ savings so that the money they save today, grows over the long-term to help Members achieve their best retirement outcomes”, he concluded.