Christopher Hawkins

Frustrated Joint Security Task Force personnel stormed the House of Parliament today over the non-payment of their allowance.

Apart from Vulupindi, their neighbours from Treasury have also closed their doors.

Members of the joint task force said some of their colleagues have worked for 1-2 months without allowance.

However, APEC CEO Christopher Hawkins said: “The payment of allowances for police, CS and defence normally take a week to process at the end of a major event.

His response follows Hanson’s viral ‘Please Explain’ Facebook video, where she succinctly expressed herself following the PNG Government’s purchase of 40 Maserati cars for the APEC leaders.

Hawkins said: “The cars being used for APEC will be purchased by the private sector so there is no cost to Government and have absolutely nothing to do with foreign support.

“I do not know how we can make it any simpler for the Senator to understand.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Hawkins, when updating Port Moresby Business houses, made these remarks recently.

Amongst the hectic schedule of the Summit, there will be several periods in November where movement will be restricted due to high level security movements of leaders and delegations while the 21 economy leaders are attending the APEC Leaders’ Summit.

The days of high activity are from the 15th to 18th November, with 15th and 16th November being considered as public holidays. 

He said it is of paramount importance that service providers must obtain purchase orders before commencing work to ensure they are compliant with financial management processes.

Hawkins made the comments after concerns were raise against the Eastern Highlands Provincial Government by suppliers seeking payment after the recent APEC Regional visits to Goroka.

Hawkins said there were a number of claims that had been sent for review by the provincial authority.

Hawkins said delegates and foreign Governments are anticipated to spend around 200 million Kina visiting Papua New Guinea over the next year, so now is not the time to play games.

He was speaking after a hotel owner in Madang made claims that only Port Moresby would host APEC meetings, a claim that the CEO says is misleading.

“Many of the main APEC Meetings have delegate numbers of more than 2,000 people and involved over 60 individual meetings.

“It is not practical to host meetings of this magnitude in Madang as the required infrastructure is not available.

The meeting will take place in Port Moresby on October 9 to 13, 2017 with over 20 Ministerial Committees expected to attend.

Chief executive officer of APEC PNG, Christopher Hawkins said APEC’S regional meetings will start in October this year starting off with this Transport Ministerial Meeting that will be held in Alotau.

The hosting of the Transportation Ministerial Meeting will provide the opportunity to advance Transportation issues which are of great concern to the nation and the APEC region.

This is to make sure delegates to the various APEC lead up meeting appreciate the diversity PNG has to offer.

Chief executive officer of APEC PNG, Christopher Hawkins said this during the 7th Security Partners Working Group meeting in Port Moresby.

Confirmed city’s that will host the APEC lead up meetings include Port Moresby, Lae, Kokopo, Wewak, Kavieng, Madang, Mt Hagen, Goroka, Popondetta and Arawa with a few other places yet to be named.