Parliament sits to elect a new Speaker and Prime Minister, CPL receives initial insurance payout of K10m for June fire, inquiry call for contract awarded to Borneo Pharmaceuticals. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Parliament is sitting today to elect a new Speaker and new Prime Minister. There are 111 members of Parliament, although at the time of writing, writs had been returned for only 105 seats. The others have yet to be counted.

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Pacific MMI has paid an initial K10 million insurance claim with CPL Group following a fire which tore through its headquarters and warehouse in mid-June. CPL Managing Director Joe Barberis has told the Post-Courier the soonest its Waigani Central shop will re-open is early 2018. Meanwhile, Group Chairman, Mahesh Patel has called for a speedy resolution to the lockdown of Mt Hagen, following election-related violence last week which resulted in disruptions to major businesses. The airport has now re-opened.

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Oro Province Governor, Gary Juffa.

Oro Governor Gary Juffa has called for an inquiry into the awarding of a K46 million contract to Borneo Pharmaceuticals to supply all health centres and aid posts around the country with medical kits for the next 12 months. He says the contract price is too high, the award procedure was illegal and the health clinics didn’t get the right medical supplies during the period of the previous contract.

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An advocacy group in Papua New Guinea has launched a petition calling on the new parliament to establish an Independent Commission Against Corruption within 100 days of taking office. Act Now! Campaign Coorindator Eddie Tanago told RNZI, the embezzlement of public funds by civil servants is rife.

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The owner and master of the ferry Rabaul Queen have been found not guilty of the manslaughter of an estimated 172 passengers, after the ferry sank in rough seas off Lae in 2012, according to Radio NZ. However the two men, along with other staff of Rabaul Shipping, are still facing charges of sending or taking an unseaworthy vessel out to sea.

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The Business Council’s Douveri Henao

PNG Business Council Executive Director Douveri Henao reportedly says infrastructure and basic services, government and regulation, broadening the industry base, and productivity and employment are the four priority areas that businesses would like to see as key areas for the incoming government to improve.

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The National Capital District Commission says it will destroy a container full of ‘illegal’ poultry products which it seized from a shop in Port Moresby. Deputy City Manager, Ted Lulu, told The National the poultry was unlabelled and their source was unknown.

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Regional airline PNG Air has returned a K34.8million operating loss for the full year 2016, reports The Post-Courier. The result is before tax and abnormal of K38.7million from return of leased Dash 8 aircraft and induction of its ATR aircraft.

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The Solomons Star reports the Australian government is attempting to block China’s Huawei telecommunications company from starting Solomon Islands’ undersea cable project. Huawei’s contract is to lay submarine cables between Sydney and Honiara. The Australian government banned Huawei from taking part in Australia’s NBN project in 2012, ‘on advice from the national security agencies’.

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The NFA’s Ludwig Kumoru

And finally, The Parties to Nauru Agreement (PNA) has decided to stop foreign fishing companies direct access to reports from on-board observers about whether the companies are complying with the PNA’s standards. The PNA’s CEO, Ludwig Kumoru, says it’s one of a series of measures to improve the safety of Pacific Islanders observers who work on purse seiners. Six Pacific observers have now been ‘lost at sea’ while on board foreign vessels.