KPHL CHAIRMAN RESPONDS TO STATEMENT BY OPPOSITION LEADER

FM100 NEWS

In a statement by the Kumul Petroleum Chairman, Mr Andrew Baing assured that Kumul Petroleum will present a full and comprehensive report on its financial affairs to Parliament in the first week of July.

This never happened, said the Opposition Leader and Member for AitapeLumi, Patrick Pruaitch as per a Media Statement released from his office.

On that day, Prime Minister James Marape told Parliament that Mr Muthuvel would submit a full report to Parliament on Kumul Petroleum.

This also never happened.

Mr Pruaitch said that in January this year Kumul Petroleum Board’s Chief Executive Officer Mr WapuSonk had wrongly advised the PNG Treasurer, Mr Sam Basil, in his former capacity as Minister to whom Kumul Petroleum reported, it has never made a loss.

However, Kumul Petroleum’s 2016 financial accounts clearly show a loss of US$149.8 million even though total revenue in that year amounted to US$547 million with net revenue (after costs) totalling US$289.6 million or K964 million at current exchange rates.

Pruaitch also noted that he is sure the Prime Minister and the people of this country would like to know how a profit of nearly K1 billion could have turned into a loss of almost K500 million in 2016.

According to the 2017Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative(EITI

) report, Kumul Petroleum revenue amounted to K2.1 billion in 2017. It paid K200 million in dividends and K13.3 million in company tax. “The public would certainly like to know where the remaining funds are held or, indeed, whether they have vanished, Mr Pruaitch said.

Pruaitch added, Kumul Petroleum also claimed tax deductions of K35.9 million for Infrastructure Tax Credits even though Kumul Petroleum does not qualify for ITC as it is not the operator for any resources project.