ACTNOW's blog

Forest Minister incorrect over The Great Timber Heist

Forest Minister Douglas Torumiesa’s attack on a report alleging the logging industry is failing to pay hundreds of millions of Kina in taxes is full of errors.

“The Forest Minister’s statements attacking The Great Timber Heist are full of inaccuracies and must be challenged”, says ACT NOW! Program Manager, Effrey Dademo.

Demand Basic Services from the Government not the Company!

Providing rural roads is a government responsibility

As Papua New Guinea (PNG) approaches the next National Election (2017) it is important for everyone to be reminded that it is the responsibility of the government to provide all the basic services we need. It is not the role of private companies to be providing classrooms, health clinics and roads.

More hopeless excuses from the government on SABL

Source: PNG Exposed Blog

We have been waiting two-and-a-half years for the government to cancel the unlawful SABL leases and stop the illegal logging, but they are still making excuses and doing nothing!

Latest to try and explain away the delays is Logging Minister, Douglas Tomuriesa [see story below]. He says 30 months is not a long time to take to implement the findings of the Commission of Inquiry and the government has not been dragging its heels!

UN committee demands answers on SABL land grab

The United Nations has written to the government demanding answers over the lack of action on the SABL land grab.

In a letter, dated February 17, the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination says it is concerned that no concrete action has been taken to cancel the SABL leases and logging operations continue. 

The Great Timber Heist: How Foreign Logging Companies Evade Taxes

Source: Oakland Institute

A new report released today, The Great Timber Heist: The Logging Industry in Papua New Guinea, exposes massive tax evasion and financial misreporting by foreign logging companies, allegedly resulting in nonpayment of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.