PNG’s James Marape dumps O’Neill party from coalition
Port Moresby: The Papua New Guinea Prime Minister has thrown the People’s National Congress party out of his coalition government.
In a statement James Marape said MPs in the PNC would no longer have seats on the government benches. He said the [PNC] MPs were continuing to participate in the government caucus, but speaking out as opposition to his government.
So the Prime Minister said it was only fair that they were all bundled into the opposition, where they could speak freely against the government, as their leader, Peter O’Neill, had been doing.
The PNC was the dominant force in the previous government until a vote of no confidence toppled Mr O’Neill a year ago. Mr Marape said his government had been cleaning up a lot of mess due to the reckless actions of the O’Neill government.
Last month Mr O’Neill was arrested and charged with suspicion of misappropriation, abuse of office and official corruption.
COVID-19 audit on its way
Meanwhile, Police Minister Bryan Kramer said he hadn’t had time to complete an internal audit of a $US6.6 million (FJ$14.6m) spent on measures to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier Opposition Leader Belden Namah had called for the audit to be made public. He claimed the minister had committed to complete the internal audit in seven days, more than three weeks ago.
Mr Kramer said while he did say it would be delivered in seven days he had been dealing with some pressing issues and had become embroiled in a number of court matters.
Mr Kramer said he hoped the audit could be done in the next two weeks.