http://www.pngindustrynews.net/storyview.asp?storyid=801570886§ionsource=s0
Blair Price
Friday, 2 August 2013
AMID new corruption claims against PNG’s Department of Petroleum and Energy and a 12-month suspended sentence for DPE secretary Rendle Rimua, you have to wonder if Prime Minister Peter O’Neill needs Petroleum Minister William Duma and his seven-seat United Resources Party anymore.
In what has triggered amusement among petroleum circles, Justice Cannings’ contempt of court sentence for Rimua included a condition that the department secretary did not consume alcohol or drugs. If this is breached, Rimua will serve his sentence in jail.
Rimua, often considered a right-hand man of Duma, found himself in this predicament for not honouring a previous court ruling to pay K10,000 to a former staff member last year.
The judge’s approach on this matter was also thought to be humorous by some. He specifically ordered Rimua to pay the staff member the K10,000 out of his own personal funds – not the department’s – an indication that Cannings has an understanding of DPE’s typical workplace culture.
Against this backdrop, there were more recent claims of boozing along with widespread corruption and unprofessionalism at the DPE in a story that has featured in PNG FaceBook communities and here on PNGblogs.com this week.
An industry source told PNGIndustryNews.net that the story seems to be a “very factual” account, which was only possible with help from someone inside the DPE.
As for the attributed writer, Steven Andre, there is also a view that he has effectively collated a variety of damning news on the DPE that has leaked across FaceBook over recent months.
Then there are some worrying matters specifically relating to Duma to consider.
While the ongoing talks between ExxonMobil and InterOil are over the prospect of finally securing enough gas for the long-vaunted third train expansion of the PNG LNG project, Duma didn’t take long to create doubt by spreading his fears about Exxon’s potential dominance over PNG’s petroleum industry.
The most recent challenge to the PNG LNG feed gas option for InterOil’s Elk-Antelope discoveries has come from Gulf province parliamentarians, who are demanding that this gas is processed in their province instead of at PNG LNG facilities.
Duma is supporting this stand and there are industry fears that he will use this as a reason to not allow Elk-Antelope to fuel a third PNG LNG train.
Outside of this posturing, it has long been evident that O’Neill is supportive of Exxon and of InterOil and in this case both interests are aligned together.
O’Neill is also in an increasingly powerful position with most of parliament behind him, to the extent that he is halfway through introducing constitutional amendments that will make parliamentary no-confidence motions very difficult to pull off.
Clearly if there was an opportune time to get rid of Duma – it’s emerging now.
While Duma and his URP numbers were handy when O’Neill was first counting heads after the 2012 election, relegating them to the few remaining in Opposition ranks will no longer have much impact for the PM.
Such a move might also prove that his government is indeed serious about tackling corruption. For all of Treasurer Don Polye’s talk of increasing transparency at the Port Chamber of Commerce and Industry breakfast this week, the DPE has remained just as unreachable as it was during the Somare government – perhaps even more so. I say this because even my attempts of getting answers from the DPE through the PM media office have failed repeatedly, while I have had some success in this regard under the Somare government.
Yet what might be most amazing of all is that despite all of the corruption-related criticism of the DPE since Duma first became Petroleum Minister in 2007, is that only one man has ever really taken action.
That was the honourable Sam Abal, who dumped Duma and Polye from their ministerial portfolios when he was acting PM in 2011 while Sir Michael Somare battled for his life in a Singapore hospital.
In what is a sad indictment for PNG politics, this action ended up costing Abal dearly. Somare’s reign over parliament disintegrated in the subsequent months that led to O’Neill’s rise to power, and Abal later lost his seat in the 2012 election.
