UBS Was a Bad Loan : Polye

Kandep MP Don Polye has told the Royal Com- mission of Inquiry into the off-shore Union Bank of Switzerland loan last Friday that he was de- commissioned as the then-treasury minister via a text message by former prime minister Peter O'Neill when he refused to sign the UBS loan deal in 2014.
 "I knew the UBS deal was a bad deal and I pleaded with Mr O'Neill to allow me to have a look at the UBS loan proposal and guide him to make a wise and prompt decision for the good of the nation," he said. 
"It was my job as the treasurer to do the checks and balances and ensure the proposal was good for the country but unfortunately, I was not al- lowed to view the documents.

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" Mr Polye said he did not sign the NEC submission that went before the Cabinet on March 6, 2014, but explained to the inquiry that the prime minis- ter was vested with powers that could override any minister's decision.
"That was exactly what Mr O'Neill did at the time of the UBS loan deal," he said. 
When asked if the March 6, 2014, Cabinet meet- ing to discuss the UBS loan deal was a normal Cabinet meeting, Mr Polye said it was an extraor- dinary meeting and not like the normal Cabinet meeting. 
"It was an extraordinary kind of one-off meeting," Mr Polye said. "The agenda was not circulated to ministers and I was unaware of the meeting. 
"It was a brief meeting, which took less than an hour because most of the ministers did not speak as they were not made aware of the agenda and the purpose of the meeting prior to the meeting. 
It was a highly-stressed meeting that lasted for 30-40 minutes."
He said there were established systems and processes that were overlooked at the time of the UBS deal. 
"I opposed and begged the prime minister to fol- low the traditional way of obtaining loans over- seas through the Department of Treasury be- cause I saw that there were a lot of discrepancies in the paper on the UBS deal," Mr Polye said. 
"What I proposed was for the Treasury to process the paper so that the State would take charge of State papers rather than allowing outside investors, like UBS, to prepare such papers and presenting it to Cabinet.
" He said PNG has systems and processes in the country and loans of such magnitude should have followed due process but did not. He said from his view, the UBS papers were prepared by UBS, funds provided by UBS and implementation of the funds done by UBS.

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