Dede Sophie

 The Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission  Coordination Centre will be the engine room for the National General Election 2022. The Electoral Commissioner Mr Simon Sinai made this remark at  the launch of the Centre, last Friday 1 July 2022, adding the purpose of the  Centre’s is  to collect and collate information from provinces during polling and counting, monitor election operations, managing internet and filtering information to relevant stakeholders. Caption: Electoral Commissioner Mr Simon Sinai during the launching of the Coordination Centre. He  also acknowledged the work of the Joint Security Task Force during this time of election, as safety and security is an important pillar of any election. Mr Sinai has also appointed a  former director general  of the Office of the Prime Minister, Simon Cholai,   as officer in charge of the Centre. “The Coordination  Centre  will go live during this election operation in providing updates and progress of the elections. “It  will be a   fo

A lot of reforms aimed at stopping unsustainable logging and corruption which was exposed by the Barnett Commission of Inquiry have not been implemented after more than 30 years. Community Advocacy Organisation ‘ACT NOW PNG’ campaign Manager, Eddie Tanago, says that these are some of the important issues, for the new Forest Minister, Salio Waipo, to address. Mr. Tanago in a statement, says that it is shameful that nothing much has happened to stop the rampant illegal and unsustainable logging, despite the reforms to the Forestry Act in 1991. He says that the Forestry Act was supposed to mark the end of the Colonial era Timber Rights Purchase (TRP) Agreements, which were found to be full of abuses, the majority of log exports are still from TRP areas.  Mr. Tanago says, another permit that has been abused is the Forest Clearance Authority (FCA’s), which sees logging companies harvesting large forest areas, and not small and discreet areas for agricultural crops or roads.  He adds that go