The 10.1 percent shares in the Oil Search Limited must sold to free up PNG of financial liability and to prevent immediately the deprivation of PNG of the much needed cash from the PNG LNG sales which is tied to the Escrow Account in Singapore.
Opposition Leader Don Polye in a media conference yesterday said the UBS loan and other commercial loans are liabilities to the state and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
He said this single loan engagement, K3 billion UBS loan was a big mistake that impacts badly on PNG’s economy today during a global economic recession, creating a domestic economic crisis and fiscal operation nightmare.
“The alternative policy approach of the alternative government was to invest all income from the sale of our LNG off-shore in a stable market through the Sovereign Wealth Fund, thence to apply such savings during cash flow situation such as PNG is experiencing today.
“If this concept had been adopted by the government, we would have had a domestic economy sound enough to absorb the global economic shock we are experiencing now.”
Polye claimed that he was well-informed by insiders in the financial system that a K300-K400 million was paid to the UBS Escrow account last Friday and yet another K300-K400 million was paid to the same account in Singapore on Monday (15 February).
He said the financial situation happening now could not happened if the government had listened to him in the past 12 months.
“I have foreseen what will happen and have been warning the government but fell on deaf ears,” says Polye.
Meanwhile, Secretary for Treasury Dairi Vele has confidently assured the leaders during the 2016 Leaders Summit yesterday (Feb 17) in Port Moresby that PNG is not broke and that the economic growth in the country is consistant.