PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea admit to having made ‘big mistake‘ after struggling to sell luxury car fleet worth £4.2 million (Rp81 billion) which was bought to impress the politician during the meeting of the leader regional.
The government at the time boasted that Maserati would be taken after being used for the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference.
The purchase sparked controversy, with some leaders refusing to use it.
Now the country – one of the poorest in the Pacific – will sell the cars at a loss.
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“If we had had the foresight, Maserati would not have been bought in the first place,” Finance Minister Sir John Pundari told local media.
“I don’t know the reason why we decided to buy Maserati and now we are stuck with this dilemma,” he added.
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The cars will now sell for around 400,000 kina each, about a 20% loss on their original price.
The Quattroporte sedan was purchased through a dealer in Sri Lanka and flown to the country in a rental jumbo jet.
At the time, Papua New Guinea’s APEC Minister Justin Tkatchenko defended the purchase, claiming that the car would provide accommodation capacity for leaders which is standard for vehicles used at APEC summits.
Tkatchenko claims that the vehicle will be ‘highly sold’ after the summit is over. Prime Minister (PM) Peter O’Neill, promised that the government “will not run out of funds”.
However, the cars have reportedly remained in a warehouse in the capital Port Moresby since the summit ended. In 2019, then PM James Marape, and the finance minister led local media to a warehouse in an attempt to prove that no cars were lost or stolen. PM O’Neill did the same.
The country also faced other difficulties soon after the summit. In November 2018, police and security forces stormed the parliament building in a dispute over unpaid bonuses of about 350 kina (Rp 1.4 billion).
Authorities also had to demand the return of nearly 300 other cars that were lost after being loaned to officials during the summit.
According to the United Nations (UN) Papua New Guinea is one of the poorest countries in APEC, with 40% of its population living on less than USD1 per day.
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