Bougainville's leader has taken issue with claims that the recent trip to Port Moresby for the Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) was a waste of money.
Bougainville's President Ishmael Toroama. Photo: ABG
The JSB meeting, which was to initiate consultations on the independence referendum, was called off amid the political tensions engulfing the Papua New Guinea government.
President Ishmael Toroama said former Bougainville advisor, Gordon Peake, alleged his government had not taken the process seriously and had wasted a lot of money.
He claimed Peake, who had been an advisor to former president John Momis, subversively acquired information and used it to give a shallow analysis of Bougainville affairs.
"It explicitly implies that my government does not take the consultations seriously and that we condone the wastage of government resources," President Toroama said.
"Mr. Peake's article further insinuates that the trip to Port Moresby to convene the Joint Supervisory Body Meeting last week was a failure and in general Bougainville's attempts at self-determination were futile," the president said.
But Peake stood by his account.
He said the Bougainville delegation included most of Toroama's Cabinet, departmental advisers, a consultation team, a media team, a protocol team, and other support staff.
Peake wrote: "between the hiring of a plane, vehicles and nights at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby, the cost of this jaunt alone must have easily run to many thousands. (The United Nations provided part of the costs through their post-referendum project.) That's a hefty sum for a region which brings in less than $AU2 million per year and where travel between the region's two main towns is fraught because of a downed bridge".
Peake also said the issues involved in the post-referendum negotiations were complex - "too much for two thinly-staffed government bureaucracies where capacity issues within have been raised time and time again".
He said that lack of capacity was evident in a proposed agenda that considered formats but steered clear of substantive issues.