BSP launches 178th ATM

Source: 

The National - Thursday, February 17, 2011

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THE Bank South Pacific BSP has put online another automated teller machine (ATM) as part of its programme to make  banking easier, convenient and accessible to customers across Papua New Guinea.
BSP chief executive officer Ian  Clyne opened a new ATM at the Courts superstore at Gordons, in Port Moresby yesterday, bringing the total number of ATMs nationwide to 178.
This makes BSP the largest ATM network serving the majority of Papua New Guineans.
In the coming weeks, BSP would be opening a couple more.
This roll-out was part of an expansion plan to have 400 ATMs nationwide.
 “We will continue to grow our ATM network because of our commitment to our customers, as this expansion allows them to choose how they bank with BSP –  at a time, place and location that are convenient to them,” Clyne said.
Courts general manager Mark Curtis, who also officiated at the launch, thanked BSP for providing the service.

 “This partnership with BSP shows our combined commitment to work together to provide to our customers the ease of comfort when shopping at Courts and needing to use the ATM service too,” Curtis said.

Whooping K500m for Bougainville

Source: 

The National - Friday, February 18, 2011

 By JEFFREY ELAPA
BOUGAINVILLE has re-ceived a massive K500 million from the national government to use in key infrastructure projects over the next five years.
The government’s assistance was aimed at reviving the economy of the strife-torn region.
An agreement was signed in Port Moresby yesterday between the Autonomous Bougainville Government and PNG government to seal the deal.
Also included in the agreement were resolutions to transfer several national government powers, including education, health, lands, forest, agriculture and teaching service (see story Page 2).
Earlier, the ABG had demanded that the national government pay the K30 million (K15 million each) for the 2009 and last year’s budget allocations before they could agree to sign the agreement.
However, an agreement was reached and the K500 million financial package would be paid to Bougainville starting next year in K100 million per year installments. The arrangement was outside of the national government budget.
Projects to be covered under the restoration and development financial package included the reopening of the Aropa airport, Arawa hospital, Buka airport and the relocation of the administration headquarters from Buka to Arawa.
Co-chair and Deputy Prime Minister Sam Abal, when announcing the K500 million package, said the agreement signalled a new chapter for PNG and the ABG to develop the region.
He said the Bougainville people had suffered a lot during the 15-year crisis and the PNG government was doing what it could to restore peace and harmony through this infrastructure financial package.
Abal also invited international donors and investors to provide counterpart funding to also assist Bougainville through it restoration period.
President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville John Momis, as co-chair, said the meeting was a success which had dealt with situations confronting Bougainville.
“Today can be described as a cultural paradigm to mutual understanding and, if we can manage the cultural momentum, then we can address the challenges faced by Bougainville and the K500 million financial package is welcome news in Bougainville.”

Karkar Island to host athletics event

Source: 

The National - Monday, February 21, 2011

By HENRY MORABANG

VOLCANIC island of Karkar in Madang, is likely to host the popular Highlands Momase regional championships in May.

The popular regional athletics championship is part of the packed programme for the PNG Athletics Union this year as it sets to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The Karkar Island championships will be a minor event but the highlight of the domestic calendar will be the Pacific Games selection trials in Lae during Easter weekend, the national championships in July and a special 50th anniversary meet in Port Moresby, also in July.

PNGAU president Tony Green said the year’s calendar was packed with events both home and abroad.

He said a number of overseas competitions had been identified to assist squad members prepare for the Pacific Games in Noumea, New Caledonia, the Philippines Open championships in May, the Oceania regional championships in Apia and the Asian championships in Japan in July.

Green said that individual squad members would be selected for competitions appropriate to their own needs and not all squad members would go to each event.

Families to be evicted from NHC houses

Source: 

The National - Monday, February 21, 2011

By JAYNE SAFIHAO
Seventeen families occupying government houses at the Walium district, Madang, have been given untill the end of this month to move out or face eviction.
This was the message last week from the current Bundi district administrator John Kari, who had the unpleasant task of relaying this message to the families who had claimed to live more than 20 years in those houses.
Kari said that of the 33 houses at the station, 22 were run down, needing major renovation work with families living in them and of that, 17 were occupied by locals themselves who claimed to have some stake to
the houses they occuppied.
Kari said: “These locals have been there for so long. They initially said that due to no government services being provided and no government staff occupying the houses they moved in. I have now asked them to vacate those houses and they have agreed to.”
He said that past administrators had failed to inform the provincial administration of the situation.
Kari said that from his meeting sometime last week, the people said they felt “sorry”  for the houses because no one had occupied them and were merely looking after the houses.
He also said that they were putting claims for some form of compensation for “looking after” the houses all these years.
“I asked them who gave them the authorities to move in and do renovation work but they are adamant that they did receive some form of authority from previous LLG managers. Only two or three got written approvals.
“February 28 has been set as the deadline for moving.
“Because there is no police presence with a big number of people moving the people has agreed unanimously to move. Also the 22 houses will be put up for auction once they are renovated,” he added.

Drug crisis continues

Source: 

The National - Monday, February 21, 2011

By JAYNE SAFIHAO
THE acute shortage of basic medical drugs in rural aid posts in Madang and Karkar is now into its second month as the province’s medical store and supplier remains closed.
Last Thursday, a Karkar islander, Atis Deme, said the situation was uncertain following a weekend visit to his area where he said basic drugs had almost nil supply.
Deme said people with malaria and other serious ilnesses could not be treated as there were no drugs like artemeter.
“At Murukanam, Miak and Mapor aid posts on Karkar, patients were being turned away. This situation is getting serious and the health department which promised to build a new medical store for Madang back in 2005 had not done so,” he said.
In support of Deme, acting provincial health director Paul Mabong, last week, confirmed that the prolonged delay by the health department was contributing to unnecessary deaths.
However, there had been no figures given for the number of deaths directly resulting from the low supply of medicine.
The medical store which was closed last December due to termite infestation and declared unfit for habitation was still awaiting payments from the province for the promised 50 pallets needed to store the drugs in.
Mabong confirmed that only 20 had been made but a further delay of two weeks for accounts to be opened was adding to the problem.
The Maritime College, early last month, agreed to provide storage space for the medical supplies for a year free of charge.
Mabong also said the Madang urban local level government which had responded due to the seriousness of the matter, had allowed them to use the condemned building as  cooling room for certain drugs only until they relocated.
A site had been identified between the Lands office and the Madang Nursing College where the current water reservoir was.
Attempts to get comments from executive director corporate service, health department, Paul Dopsy were unsuccessful.

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Facility needed to check TB, HIV

By PISAI GUMAR, The National
A TOTAL of 14 multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients in the Morobe province have also been diagnosed with the HIV-AIDS virus last year.
They are currently listed as undergoing the anti-retroviral drugs.
According to the 2010 World Health Organisation’s fourth quarter report, seven men and seven women were infected with TB bacilli and HIV-AIDS virus indicating the collaborative trend of two diseases each of them.
This is of critical concern to non-governmental partner organisations such as Medicines Sans Frontiers (doctors without borders), World Vision and WHO, which are assisting the health department to combat TB.
According to Morobe provincial WHO TB coordinator Sabina Waffi, TB cases detection in Morobe is rated the second below National Capital District while in South-West Pacific, Papua New Guinea had moved down from second to fourth placing.
The case detection rate was 108 persons per 100,000 people while treatment under the direct observe treatment (DOTS) coverage was 80% annually.
According to last year’s statistics, total TB cases detected were 2,148 while incidence rates stood at 272 persons per 10,000 people.
In Morobe, of the 32 suspect cases, nine contracted multi-drug resistance TB (pulmonary TB), or Market TB in Tok Pisin.
Six were on treatment while three died while awaiting sputum results from Australia.
Despite extra awareness and advocacy, unavailability of drug facilities and testing to check for the bacilli were major setbacks.
Current mini-laboratories available are only microscopic testing used for new smear positive (NSP) testing to verify sputum results only.  

Authorities urged to fix Madang schools

Source: The National

MANY parents with children attending schools in Madang want education authorities to look into restoring and renovating old school buildings and provide more teachers’ houses.
A concerned parent said this yesterday after recent reports of the shortage of space during enrollment.
The parent, who was a former board member of one of the schools and who did not want to sound biased, said most of the infrastructure in schools around Madang town such as Tusbab, Kusbau, Jomba and Mero at Sagalau were in dire need of repair and major renovation.
“At Holy Spirit High, there is a serious shortage of teachers’ houses, Kusbau is falling apart. You should see the staff houses; it is like putting the chickens in a chicken coop.
“There must be major renovation to classrooms to cater for the large number of students coming in.
“Teachers will only be happy to perform if their living conditions are improved,” he said.
The parent also stressed that landowners were taking advantage of the usage of land and occupying teachers’ houses illegally.
The example, he stressed, was in Jomba where a Yabob landowner occupied a staff house and had been living there for several years.
He said the issue of shortage was not only a problem at Tusbab but the entire country and most had never been reported.
He also supported Tusbab Secondary School principal Margret Valakvi’s call for more secondary schools to be opened in Madang.

Experts say no baseline study for Basamuk

By JAYNE SAFIHAO, The National
THE resounding question of whether or not a thorough baseline study of the Basamuk area was conducted or not prior to, and during, the environmental study revealed that there was none.
These and other questions raised in relation to sedimentation and upwelling were spelt out yesterday in the courtroom by Tiffany Nonggorr of Nonggorr and Williams Lawyers.
The scientist who took the stand today representing the developer Ramu Nico management were: Philip Tower, a marine chemist; Dr George Shou, an engineer with BRASS Engineering, a Canadian company; and Stuart Jones, an environment and social impact scientist who has an honours in geography and a bachelors in geology.
All admitted that to an extent a baseline study was not properly conducted which included, the sum total of every scientific data and the various living organisms within that particular area.
Jones spoke at length on the strong possibility of upwelling during the monsoonal rainy seasons, of which were currently being felt, was likely with the current strong northwesterly winds.
With reference to the Scottish Association of Marine Scientist report, he said that there needed to be a continual 12-month period of monitoring done.
Shou brought a 500ml plastic coke container of slurry into the court room to show the court what slurry would look like in the 350km pipeline and then, in layman’s  language, he explained the processes of the extraction of the nickel, laterite and other minerals in stages to the waste removal.
Shou, however, admitted that due to a ‘judgment error’ previously made by miscalculations the piping of the Misima mines eventually broke causing the spill that occurred in September 2004.
With leading questions still unanswered by a straight “yes–or-no” answer regarding the question of stringent monitoring and toxicological effects to the marine environment the court was adjourned yesterday afternoon to 9.30am today.
Secretary for Environment and Conservation Dr Wari Iamo and others who were supposed to take the stand yesterday will do so this morning

PNG-Australia alumni group donates instruments to Modilon

Source: 

The National - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 

By  ELIZABETH MIAE
THE PNG-Australia Alumni Association (PNGAAA) has come to the aid of Madang’s Modilon Hospital with the donation of two new blood pressure (BP) machines to its ante natal clinic and the labour ward.
The BP machines are very important medical equipment that are needed in every health facility but unfortunately staff at these two facilities at Modilon have been using one each to examine pregnant women.
The PNGAAA had initially planned to donate the machines to the Lutheran School of Nursing (LSON) however the school decided that the machines be given to the hospital instead.
LSON midwifery coordinator Elizabeth Natera said they saw the hospital’s need for these machines and it (hospital) was also used as a training ground for LSON students.
She said they would also be requesting for additional BP machines for the post natal and gynecology wards.
Obstetrician and gynecologist Dr John Bolnga said the new BP machines would go a long way in assisting the staff at the maternity wing with their daily work.
“The ante natal clinic sees about 100 pregnant women in a week, including those that travel in from the rural areas,” acting sister in charge of the ante natal clinic Margaret Gemo said.
She said apart from the ante natal clinic, they also have family planning clinic and it was a must that the women had their blood pressures checked.
PNGAAA chairperson Menser Wagun, when presenting at the hospital last Friday, said that as Papua New Guineans who were educated in Australia, they were challenged by the government to help improve the health of its citizens.
She said this was part of a small health project by the association that they hoped to expand throughout the country.
Wagun told the gathering that 13 machines were given to University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Medicine, another 12 were given to Maprik hospital in East Sepik and 10 to Milne Bay.
The first phase of the project was a mobile clinic at Gaire village in Central’s East Hiri district.