22 Sep 2011

Former PNG administration under attack for management of public investment business

6:24 pm on 22 September 2011

The Papua New Guinea Minister for Public Enterprises, Sir Mekere Morauta, says his predecessor, Arthur Somare, lost millions in poor investment decisions through the Independent Public Business Corporation.

The National newspaper says, in a report, Sir Mekere revealed huge sums of money were lost while some is unaccounted for, and this needs to be investigated.

Some of the loss can be put down to exchange rate movements, while there'd also been a substantial investment in collapsed Wall Street banker, Lehman Brothers.

The Public Service Minister Bart Philemon says the IPBC was run as a second treasury controlled by Arthur Somare and the IPBC managing director Glenn Blake, who he says was paid nearly three quarters of a million US dollars.

The paper quotes Mr Philemon saying millions had been paid to Sir Michael Somare by his son but there are no records of that.

And Mr Philemon says the Somare administration had enjoyed a multi billion kina windfall through its nine years in government, but had little to show for it.