Transcript
JOHN MOMIS: The Bougainville situation is different from the rest of the country, in that we never got the full amount of what we were constitutionally guaranteed, whereas in other provinces they were getting what they were entitled to. In Bougainville they would include big amounts of money in the Budget, the national Budget, and yet we did not receive it. We only got a fraction of what appeared in the Budget. And a lot of people did not understand. I was told by my finance minister who went to Port Moresby found out that even officials from the National Planning Office and Treasury and Finance were not well briefed on what Bougainville deserves under the Peace Agreement and under the Constitution of Papua New Guinea. So the situation has been like this for a long, long time. Not only short of funds, we were actually deprived in a drastic way of our funds that were allocated to us but we never received.
DON WISEMAN: Why do you think the National Government is doing this? Clearly the main players in the PNG government know what is required, why are they withholding money?
JM: Well they probably - they are very biased, you know they are very biased against Bougainville's right of self determination, which is regulated by the Peace Agreement anyway. The right of self determination in Bougainville's case can only take place within the parameters of the Peace Agreement, which means the two governments must work together and jointly implement the Peace Agreement, and accept a good outcome which has to be mutually acceptable anyway.
DW: Do you think that they are trying to engineer a situation where Bougainville cannot be in a viable position to possibly choose independence?
JM: Yes that's correct. Yes.
DW: So how do you overcome that?
JM: Well the Peace Agreement doesn't only obligate Bougainville. The Peace Agreement is a joint agreement between the National Government and Bougainville and the two parties are required to jointly implement the Peace Agreement. So the National Government is as much obligated as the ABG. So they can't walk away from the obligation. They have to pick up their end of the stick.
DW: In the past you have I think on a number of occasions threatened to take the National Government to court over its tardiness in paying this money that's due, but you haven't gone beyond those threats.
JM: We are now in the final stage of preparing our case by getting the correct figures for the restoration and development grant as per the formula which is used to calculate the amount of funds that we entitled to. We are not taking the National Government to court really - we have invited the National Government to join us and together seek a constitutional reference which give us the final interpretation of the formula because right now the National Government applies the formula and according to their interpretation they don't give us much. According to our formula it is a big amount of money which the National Government owes. We've said all right. We have graciously spent that year out year in. The only way now is to go to the National Court and get a final interpretation so that there can be no more argument.
DW: In the end it is just going to come to whether or not they have got the money and all the signs are that the national economy in PNG is in one of the worst states its even been in. There's very, very little money, that the economy may be smaller than it was 20 years ago, so it would seem that there is maybe not any money there anyway for you. You have perhaps got to go somewhere else. Is that possible?
JM: Yes we will try to go elsewhere, borrow ourselves or that sort of thing but the National Government is bound by the Peace Agreement, which is not only an agreement it is a constitutionalised contract between the National Government and the ABG and the people of Bougainville. So they must find the money somehow. If they can find other things. Our case is a little bit different, it is similar to what the constitution gives the judiciary - the legislature cannot refuse the judiciary what it is entitled to under the constitution. So because it is a constitutional requirement we believe that the National Government has to find the money, whether they find the full amount at this time or whether it is over a period of time but they can't just wash their hands and say 'sorry' because we are entitled to these funds. We cannot run an autonomous government and provide services when the government refuses to give us money. Otherwise they have to then allow us to really act as an autonomous government and solicit funds ourselves, which under the current arrangement we still need National Government approval to solicit money out side the government.
