Prime Minister James Marape has called on the major players in the UBS loan transaction to come forward and explain the roles they played in the deal, which a substantial amount of money was lost.
The Prime Minister mentioned the Union Bank of Switzerland Australia and Pac LNG as among those major players involved.
“I call upon UBS wherever you are, UBS Australia who facilitated the transaction should come and assist the inquiry. UBS bank who lend this money out, come and assist us with this inquiry.
Pac LNG, who owns 20 per cent of the ELK-Antelope project, was the biggest beneficiaries of this transaction. $US 800- 900 million dollars was transacted from UBS to Pac LNG so that Oil Search will own shares in Papua LNG/PRL 15.
“Carlos Sivalley from Pac LNG, come out and tell us what value was Oil Search share that you had gave your 20 per cent stake to the Antelope project for Oil Search using money that was raised purportedly to retire the IPIC transaction. The fine was used to buy oil search share into Papua LNG or PRL 15,” added the Prime Minister.
He also called upon signatories including, Governor of Bank of PNG, Loi Bakani, Treasury Secretary Diari Vele and the former ministers under Peter O’Neill’s prime Ministership to present their evidence.
“The inquiry will establish whether it was negligence on our path or deliberate skimming to make sure that PNG lost money that was meant to support 2015 budget because we are feeling the loss up to today.”
“We will look into criminal intent, money laundering and people benefiting from this sort of schemes.
One or two persons in authority to siphon off millions of kina for our people must not use the PNG government system. Today we don’t own any more shares in Oil Search, including the money we lost.”