Papua New Guinea Launches UBS Loan Investigation

Newly elected Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape announced the launch of a full investigation to confirm if the government had violated its own rules regarding a 1.2 billion Australian dollar UBS loan.

The Swiss bank extended the loan (now valued at $847 million) in 2014 to purchase a key stake in energy firm Oil Search while the current prime minister Marape was then its finance minister.

According to Marape, the investigation was not only about «looking at leaders» but to reveal the fuller scope of the entire transaction which he believes extends beyond Papa New Guinea.

The scope is not only confined to investigations in this country, he said.

UBS transactions have taken place in one or two other jurisdictions outside of our country and so the train of events will be followed by this inquiry… once concluded will put finality to the matters.

Former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, stepped down due to loss of confidence in his leadership in May this year. Sarape was elected and sworn in one day after, having since made bold statements including his goal to turn Papa New Guinea into the world’s richest black Christian nation.

Under the new leadership, the government then sold its Oil Search stake and repaid the loan.

Prior to Sarape’s investigation, the loan had already been flagged by the country’s Ombudsman Commission for breached budget guidelines and Swiss regulator FINMA had also claimed to have contacted UBS in March about the matter.

The country deserves the fullest scrutiny as to what has happened, Sarape said.