2 weeks Ago By postcourieronline
THE 2024 Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook delivered by the Government this week tells a sad story, said Member for Ialibu-Pangia, Peter O’Neill. It is a story of the nation crippled by debt and suffering badly under the economic interference of Marape, the former Prime Minister said. O’Neill said there could be many reasons why the MYEFO was not provided to the public in July or August as required by law, instead being lumped in just ahead of the budget, but none more striking than the full impact the closure of Porgera is having on the economy.
“The MYEFO reports GDP will be down 0.7 percent in large part due to the lack of production at Porgera,” he said. “In April 2020, Marape closed Porgera down, citing he was going to take back the mine into 100 percent PNG hands.
A few short days later, he had to go back on this and instead was negotiating to secure a new deal of part ownership,” O’Neill said. “In his own words, on the 28th of April 2020, Marape released the following statement: *The world will not end if Porgera Mine closes its operation. To all PNGeans, bear with me.
We can endure short-term pain for long-term gain. Don’t be cry babies and pessimists because the world will not end if Porgera closes.*” O’Neill said now we are in late 2024, almost five (5) full years of production lost to the Marape mistake to close Porgera.
“In 2019, the last full year of Porgera production, the mine yielded 599,700 ounces of gold. A simple calculation of estimated annual production multiplied by the average gold price per ounce reveals the massive size of the Marape mistake.” “A massive **twenty-six billion (PGK26 billion) Kina** has been lost during the years 2020 to 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024,” he said.
O’Neill said negotiations are yet to conclude with landowners and other beneficiaries, and it now seems obvious these groups will hold the government responsible for the lost revenues and demand a better deal from the Marape government for the four-plus years of lost opportunity. He said the lost jobs, the lost contracts to SMEs, and lost royalties—not to mention the huge impact the closure of the mine has had on law and order—are all in addition to the K26 billion in total lost production values. “There are 26 billion reasons Papua New Guineans, Engans, and domestic and foreign investors have lost complete confidence in this Marape-led government.
What a disgrace.” “It is time to put PNG back on track and get back to the work of nation-building. Enough time and money wasted on Marape mistake after mistake.
” “Marape was wrong to close the mine. Wrong to call the Engan people cry babies, and wrong to continue in his role as Prime Minister,” he said. Prime Minister James Marape has countered O’Neill’s statement on the Porgera issue.
In a short statement, Mr. Marape said Peter O’Neill should be the last person talking about the nation’s economy that he ran into recession in 2018. “When I picked it up and lifted the economy back to the path of recovery by using a sustainable deficit budget strategy, that has economic growth in the heart of it,” he said.
Mr. Marape said in 2018, Porgera mine was operational, but the final budget outcome showed a recessed economy. “And if the country was still under O’Neill, he would have maintained the 5 percent equity to PNG and 95 percent ownership to our foreign investors.
This is something we changed, and now PNG owns 51 percent of the line earnings, 15 percent equity upfront with 3 percent royalties unlike the 2 percent before, and we pick up a better local content,” Marape said. “On the economy, I want to assure everyone that in tough times, right after a once-in-a-100-years pandemic from COVID-19 that shut the world and PNG economy, we have been picking up government revenue and expenditures. Again, people who want to compare and see past performances can look at O’Neill’s final budget outcomes from years 2011 to 2018 and Marape’s from 2019 to 2023 to see reliable numbers on who managed the economy better in tough times,” he added.
“My advice to the country is that they don’t believe a commission of inquiry-established liar who lied under oath. Read past economic numbers from the treasury, central bank, World Bank, ADB, and IMF to know who is doing better for PNG,” Mr. Marape said.
“O’Neill has been desperately trying to come back since he got disposed of as PM in 2019, hence continues to permeate and peddle lies in our public space under the guise of a concerned leader. He should do justice to the founders of the PNC Party, the people of Ialibu Pangia, and his family by resting from continuous lies in the public space,” Mr. Marape added.
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