Author: News-Link PNG

Sydney businessmen the Elomar brothers were busy in 2014.

Mamdouh Elomar was publicly decrying the actions of his son Mohamed, an Islamic State fighter in Syria who would go on to be photographed holding severed heads.The Elomar brothers in Papua New Guinea

Mamdouh was also vying for Iraqi construction contracts with his brother Ibrahim, arranging a $US1 million bribe for which they would both be jailed last year.

But the pair struck another deal that year, paying $6 million for a logging company only to end up negotiating a $9 million payment from the previous owners after a dispute.

The case, now before the courts, involves the forests of Papua New Guinea and a development fund meant to help lift locals out of poverty.

And it hinges on claims that another businessman stole more than $10 million in assets belonging to the Papua New Guinean people.

Mamdouh, 64, and Ibrahim, 61, were raised in Lebanon in a family of 12 children and worked manual jobs in Australia before building a large construction company, Lifese.

The firm counted a former Supreme Court judge as its chairman and completed projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In time, though, the Elomar brothers became better known for the extremist activities of their relatives.

Mamdouh’s brother Mohamed Ali Elomar is serving 21 years’ jail for his role in planning attempted terrorist attacks in Melbourne and Sydney in 2005.

Mamdouh’s son Ahmed was jailed for four years for assaulting a policeman at the 2012 riots in Sydney’s Hyde Park, after carrying a sign that said “our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hell”.

Then his son Mohamed, formerly a promising boxer, travelled to Syria to become one of Australia’s most infamous IS fighters, before he was killed in an airstrike in 2015.

Terrorism headlines were hurting the Lifese business in 2014, shrinking revenue.

But the Elomars found money in February that year to buy a timber operation called Cloudy Bay from the PNG Sustainable Development Program, a charitable trust part-run by Australians.

Managing $US1.3 billion in assets, PNG SDP funds local development projects with proceeds from the Ok Tedi mine that was once owned by BHP, which handed over its stake in return for immunity from environmental lawsuits.

“We commit ourselves to improving the quality of life of the people of Western Province,” the program says on its website.

The Elomars were joined by another Australian, 25 per cent shareholder Nick Roniotis, in buying the Cloudy Bay timber operation – including logging permits, production plants and a commercial building in Port Moresby – for 40 million kina, about $17 million at the time.

They paid $6.5 million up front, but then defaulted on the rest.

As they faced charges over the bribery in Iraq, the Elomars were negotiating hard over the PNG business to strike a new and unusual deal.

It would have allowed them to keep control of the company while receiving millions of dollars more than they ended up paying for it.

The deal, signed last February, was meant to put an end to a murky dispute.

PNG SDP could have taken back all of the timber operations’ assets, but it decided to forgive the $11 million debt in return for the Port Moresby property alone.

On top of this, PNG SDP said it would pay the Elomars’ company $9 million.

Once the property was transferred back to the development program and the money paid, both sides would relinquish any right to sue over the initial sale.

The deal was fair, according to PNG SDP’s Australian chief executive John Wylie, because it compensated the Elomars for a massive theft on the timber operation.

A former public servant and management consultant, Mr Wylie said the theft was committed by someone working within the development fund before the sale to the Elomars and was only discovered later.

“Physical assets” were allegedly stolen and funds siphoned off to pay for personal expenses, including school fees in Australia.

“The validated quantum of the theft was much more than $9 million,” he said.

The alleged thief, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been reported to an anti-corruption body in Singapore, where the company was incorporated, Mr Wylie said.

“The PNG authorities are in the process of being informed,” he said. “This is being done carefully through lawyers and has yet to be fully executed.”

Deeds sighted by The Sun-Herald refer not to a theft but “disputes” between the buyer and seller.

Asked why the $9 million payment was to go to the Elomars personally, not the Cloudy Bay company, Mr Wylie said Cloudy Bay had given a written executed authority for it.

“How they divvied up the spoils, as it were – we didn’t want to get involved in that. None of our business.”

The deal has yet to go through.

The Elomars’ former business partner, Mr Roniotis, claimed he was cut out of the $9 million payment. He launched action in PNG’s National Court of Justice to have the sum paid to the timber company, not the Elomars’ venture.

Mr Roniotis also questioned the idea of compensation for a theft, saying he and the Elomars conducted due diligence on the company before buying it and found nothing untoward.

His lawyer, Stewart Levitt, has questioned the negotiations between PNG SDP and the Elomars, who at the time had been facing foreign bribery charges for more than a year.

“It would be extraordinary for the trustees of a public trust to want to continue to do business with people known to be facing serious criminal charges which had been widely reported,” Mr Levitt said.

The Elomars, who pleaded guilty to the Iraq bribery last July, will be first eligible for release in September next year. Their lawyer at the time of the PNG deal negotiations, Abdul Reslan, did not return calls.

The establishment of PNG SDP and environmental damage from the Ok Tedi mine is now under investigation after PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill announced a public inquiry in parliament this month.

OFC president David Chung shakes hands with Auckland football players ahead of the OFC President’s Cup match in November 2014.

An Auckland football project at the centre of a Fifa investigation was delivered two years late and more than $10 million over budget – and it’s still only half complete.

Fifa’s Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) president David Chung quit last week after an audit into OFC’s Home of Football project, being built in the Auckland suburb of St Johns, triggered an investigation into “potential wrongdoings”.

The Serious Fraud Office has been made aware of the audit but would not comment further.

Work has stalled on stage two of the Home of Football, five years after the project started first started.

The project, paid for by Fifa, was to be built in two stages. The first has been completed and includes two artificial football turfs, changing room facilities and flood lights.

READ MORE: Fifa boss resigns after audit into Auckland football project reveals ‘potential wrongdoings’

The second stage, which has not been built, was to include a multi-million dollar building with meeting rooms, offices for up to 100 people, a fitness centre, cafe, seating for 2000 people and an indoor sports facility.

OFC, which includes New Zealand and other football-playing nations in the Pacific, is seeking a 30-year lease on the site at Ngahue Reserve on College Rd, conditional on Auckland Council and Ōrākei Local Board approval, which had not yet been granted.

Ōrākei Local Board deputy chairman Kit Parkinson said the project, built on an old landfill, had not cost ratepayers a cent.

Auckland Council ordered a stop to work in December after OFC failed to gain consent, Parkinson said.

Parkinson said other than some foundation work, nothing had been done on stage two.

“There’s basically nothing there.”

The centre was intended to be a public facility 70 per cent of the time and available for OFC to use 30 per cent of the time.

Auckland councillor Desley Simpson, who was Ōrākei Local Board chairwoman during early negotiations with OFC, said in 2013 stage one of the project was estimated to cost $5.3m.

Simpson said Auckland Council figures supplied to her said OFC’s 2016 financial report had costs to date of $12.8m for stage one and $3.1m for stage two, giving a total of $15.9m.

The report was not available on OFC’s website.

The project was due to be completed in 2016, OFC said.

In light of the audit, commissioned by Fifa and conducted by PWC, OFC had appointed an external lawyer to lead an investigation into “potential wrongdoings and to take legal action”, if required, it said.

In the project’s early stages Fifa had agreed to fund up to $13.3m with $6.7m coming from OFC.

Chung was the president of OFC since the project started.

Simpson said OFC had been difficult to deal with and its relationship with Auckland Council had been “tense”.

The local board only agreed to the development unless it got exactly what it wanted, which was a community asset, she said.

However, OFC tried to change the terms of use after the project was underway. In particular it wanted more use of the field, which overlapped into community use time, she said.

PC Online

THE National Executive Council (NEC) has approved the National Energy Policy.

With the motto of “Harnessing Energy for Life” and covering all aspects of the energy sector, the main objective of the policy is to deliver electricity services for economic growth and rural development.

Minister for Communication and Information Technology and Energy Sam Basil said electricity in the country has only reached 13 per cent and successive governments have ignored the importance of an energy policy which drives the development and utilisation of our renewable natural energy sources.

“Energy policy which fully utilises our renewable energy resources to provide the energy needs of our people and the economy is well overdue. Indeed it has taken more than 40 years since independence for such a policy to be adopted for our country.

“The new policy provides for development and utilisation of these sources of energy, including hydro, solar, wind, biomass, biogas, ocean, coal, geothermal and downstream petroleum products to generate power.

“Specific sub-sector policies will be developed to ensure that each source of energy is given appropriate government attention in realising its potential in meeting the energy needs of our country and even exporting some of our energy overseas,” Mr Basil said.

He said this policy sets the roadmap for reforms in the energy sector including the electricity services industry, setting in place new institutional and regulatory arrangements, to harness the full economic potential of our natural energy resources.

“The new policy also establishes a licensing system for supply of electricity by undertakers in generation, transmission, distribution and retailing of power to the consumers. Review of legislation is necessary to ensure there is no conflict of laws in the implementation of it.

“Legislation is required to ensure that power supply through main power grids and off-grid systems are operated under appropriate laws on level playing fields and in accordance with international standards,” Mr Basil said.

Further reforms through the new policy will result in the transmission, distribution and retailing of power supply markets open for competition.

A new tariff system will be introduced for power supply generated from renewable energy sources. Appropriate tariff and possibly other incentives for each renewable energy source is vital for encouraging the development of each renewable energy source.

The National Executive Council made the decision

Dr Malau took over from the acting Administrator Richard Kombo.

Dr Malau’s credentials include being PNG’s Health Secretary from 2007 to 2011, working with the World Health Organization in Fiji, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Divine Word University and his role in helping to strengthen health systems in Timor Leste.

Dr Malau prior to his appointment said he was motivated to support a leader like East Sepik Governor Governor Allan Bird in his aspirations to make a difference for the people of the East Sepik Province and be an example to the rest of PNG.

He said he is capable of taking up the provincial administrator’s position despite a background in health due to his credentials with Harvard University.

Malau added that Harvard public health taught him the values of humanity: Fairness, justice, equality, and using evidence for decision making in public health practice.

Dr Malau said this opportunity of being a provincial administrator therefore, excited him to go beyond the health focus and manage other factors that enable all our people to be happy, healthy and wise.

The news came quite suddenly last weekend – one of the stars of the Intrust Super Cup was playing his final game after deciding to swap his boot bag for a library card.

PNG Hunters fullback Stargroth Amean had approached his coach Michael Marum earlier in the week to tell him had made a decision about his future and – to the lament of fans of the Intrust Super Cup competition and beyond – this was away from the football field.

Amean (who was reportedly named after a Spanish film star by his movie-loving mother) had always wanted to be a doctor and felt the time was right to convert his part-time studies in science into a full-time dedication in order to help him achieve his dream.

While obviously disappointed to be losing such a valued member of his squad, all Marum could do was wish him well.

Besides; this is far from the first time Marum’s been forced to farewell a talent he’s played an integral part in shaping, and it won’t be the last.

In some ways, the success of the PNG Hunters and their football program can at times work against them, as it teaches young men to believe in themselves and pushes them to work hard to strive toward their goals.

As Marum is continuing to discover, instilling discipline can help his players eventually further their footballing careers by signing with overseas clubs, like the brothers Wellington and Stanton Albert, now at the Widnes Vikings; or they can find fulfilling employment outside of football completely.

“I knew he was doing part-time studies since last year and during preseason … but he didn’t mention (anything about stepping down) til just on Tuesday night when he came into my office and informed me of his decision,” Marum said of how Amean broke the news to him.

The inaugural coach of the Hunters since they entered the competition in 2014, Marum has previously seen rampaging winger Garry Lo head to England in his quest to play Super League, overseen the signing of Justin Olam with the Melbourne Storm (now playing for the Sunshine Coast); while former captain and the club’s all-time leading point scorer Noel Zeming decided to leave the Hunters to pursue a career in teaching.

Despite having to deal with the departures of key personnel after investing considerable efforts into promoting their wellbeing and development, the PNG Kumuls coach was proud of the expectations placed on his charges.

“We have set high standards at our club and in order to be successful, and (players) have to abide by (them),” Marum said.

He also acknowledged that players who meet these standards would soon discover their own ability to achieve, meaning they could be lost to other endeavours.

“Yes definitely; they gain a lot of confidence from what we try to enforce to them in order to become successful,” he said.

“Hopefully a lot of them go out and apply what they have learnt from the team.”

While there is nothing preventing the Hunters from trying to lure an established talent from other clubs in the competition to fill the void left by a player like Amean, the club is committed to providing pathways – football or otherwise – for Papua New Guineans, despite the challenges.

“It’s very tough when you invest a lot of time into players that you think will do well for you and then lose them to study and work,” Marum admitted.

“Bringing in players from our local Digicel Cup clubs is what we are doing (as this forms) a pathway for our PNG boys to expose their talents outside of the country.

“But they come from a lower level of competition and we are working hard on how we can close the gap in between.”

A fan favourite, the retirement of Hunter #27 (who played 64 games and scored 37 tries) will be a difficult one to manage as he was a key pillar in their premiership success last year.

“We will certainly miss his presence on the field, but we have to move on and work with who we have and put trust in him that he can do the same,” Marum said of his side’s focus going forward.

As well as his obvious skills with the ball; the loss off of Amean’s leadership and experience will leave another huge void to fill.

Marum said the team would also miss his presence off the field, with the former Viper known for his upbeat personality and his absolute love of the camera.

“He loves pictures,” Marum said.

“The boys will miss seeing him taking selfies whenever we (are) anywhere near cameras.”

The PNG Hunters travel to Bishop Park this Saturday to face the Norths Devils at 5.30pm.

Director of the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate, Mathew Damaru confirmed that Nauga was arrested with charges of abuse of office, conspiracy to defraud, and misappropriation of 247,500 thousand kina.

The charges emanated from an allegation that two audit contracts were awarded to Frank Benabo and associates, to conduct an audit inspection on Aitapei District’s DSIP books in 20-12 at the cost of 123, 750 kina.

The other contract was awarded to Mendi District DSIP in 20-12 at the same cost as the previous contract but for a lesser period of time.

Investigations revealed that Nauga convened a meeting to approve thetenders without a tender’s brief and proper evaluation reports from the secretariat in line with standard procedures.

Based on the findings Nauga was invited to the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate on Tuesday where he was interviewed than charged and taken to the Boroko police cells.

He is set to appear in court this week.

President of the United States, Donald Trump has conveyed his sympathy to Papua New Guinea following the recent devastating earthquake that hit the Highlands of the Pacific Island nation.

Trump wrote a letter to the office of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill expressing his sympathy on the devastating disaster in the Highlands of PNG. According to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s office, the letter written and signed by Mr Trump was delivered last week. Mr Trump is looking forward to attend the APEC meeting in PNG in November this year and expressed his sadness on those areas affected by the earthquake.