12 Mar 2014

PNG opposition calls on PM to come clean on sackings

9:52 am on 12 March 2014

Papua New Guinea's opposition says the prime minister Peter O'Neill should come clean on why he has sacked senior ministers.

Mr O'Neill sacked the Treasurer Don Polye this week and last month dismissed another senior minister William Duma saying it was necessary to maintain stability in his coalition government.

This week he also announced the sacking of the Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations Mark Maipakai

But the leader of the opposition Belden Namah says there is more behind the sackings.

He says Mr Polye may have been sacked because he was vocal about the government's limit on borrowing.

He says now Mr O'Neill is acting Treasurer he will sign off a 1.2 billion kina loan to buy back PNG's shares in Oil Search.

Mr Namah says the timing of the sackings is wrong as the government has just announced it will negotiate the country's second LNG project.