Leader of the Opposition

Mr Lelang said this during the presentation of his Kandrian Gloucester District’s outstanding District Services Improvement Program (DSIP) fund and District Support Grant (DSG), acquittals to the Department of Rural Development and Planning;

The presentation was for the outstanding DSIP and DSG for years 2020 and 2021.

He said the Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS) installed by Government to be used is not serving its purpose attributed to following challenges, and they are;

Four people are reported dead with many homes destroyed in the magnitude 7 quake.

Mr Lelang said there must always be emergency funds available and the National Disaster and Emergency Services must be fully equipped to deploy at a moment's notice.

“This country sits on the Pacific ring of fire. It is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. 

“Large rivers and high rain fall result in flooding and land slips which has happened numerous times.

“The government must ensure NDES is able to respond in the shortest time to disasters.

Lelang said he was disturbed by the social media post, showing a picture of a young girl stripped naked and helplessly at the hands of hooligans up in Tari and made the call to arrest these culprits and dealt with them immediately.

“Normalcy and morality no longer exist in this society. What kind of society are we trying to raise our future generation – why are we waiting this long, we need the police to act and apprehend these culprits,” he said.

“This is exemplary leadership from Paita. He has pledged himself on oath to never bring into disrepute or public ridicule the good name and reputation of the offices of the Member for Finschhafen and Minister for National Planning and Monitoring,” Namah said.

Meantime, Namah confirmed that he has laid a police complaint against Paita, on evidence presented on social media that the former Minister was seen discharging a military issued high-powered weapon.

He said PNG should be using its own resources to send the troops over, and not the other way around.

The question was raised after the Australian army used its C130 aircraft to fly PNG troops over.

“From what we know, the cost to Australia to send two Royal Australian Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft to pick up our personnel and to return them in three months is just under one million kina,” he stated.

They warn of more serious socio-economic problems if the current regime is allowed to continue in office.

Leader of the Opposition, Patrick Pruaitch, warned that if the current political leadership in not changed, PNG will sink deeper into more serious problems than ever experienced before.

Pruaitch warned that the current unprecedented level of corruption, financial and economic mismanagement is far worse than the problems created by the former PNC Government under the late Bill Skate’s leadership, from 1997 to 1999.