PM APPOINTS SON AS FINANCE MINISTER

NATIONAL REPORTS


PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare has appointed his son Angoram MP Arthur Somare the acting Finance and Treasury Minister.
Government insiders told The National the prime minister signed the instrument for the appointment of Somare last Friday, and a public announcement on this change is expected this week.
This portfolio became vacant after incumbent Patrick Pruaitch was suspended from office because of his referral to a leadership tribunal over allegations of misconduct in office.
Pruatich is challenging his referral in court, and the case is pending.
There has been a lot of jostling and lobbying for this job since Pruaitch vacated it, and a number of ministers and backbenchers were hoping the job would go to them. But, insiders said, the job had to remain in the Momase region under the Kokopo Agreement that the National Alliance and its coalition partners agreed to after the general elections.  “A number of eligible and qualified candidates have missed out, but that is the nature of these political agreements,” an insider said when confirming the appointment of Somare. Somare will double up as Public Enterprises Minister as well. But the appointment raised eyebrows in some circles, with Somare also confronting misconduct allegations of his own. The public prosecutor last week asked the chief justice to appoint a judge to head a leadership tribunal to inquire into allegations of misconduct in office which were referred in 2006.
Somare continues to hold office because he had taken out an injunction against his suspension, and is challenging his referral in court.

OPPOSITION leader Sir Mekere Morauta has called on Public Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare to step aside to answer the alleged leadership charges laid against him by the Ombudsman Commission.
Sir Mekere told a press conference yesterday Somare must step down in the interest of good governance and law. He said Somare could not be allowed to remain a state minister making very important decisions that were affecting the lives of people. “As a senior minister and an important member of the ‘kitchen cabinet’, the minister is duty-bound to respect and uphold the Constitution and principles of law by stepping aside to answer leadership charges against him,” Sir Mekere said.
He said he was making the call in light of the decision of the acting public prosecutor, Jim Wala Tamate, to request Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia to appoint a new chairman for the leadership tribunal to investigate allegations of misconduct against Somare. The public prosecutor sent the letter to the chief justice on June 21. Somare was referred by the Ombudsman Commission in 2006, and a tribunal was appointed headed by Justice Sir Kubulan Los. But Somare took an injunction against the referral. Since then, Sir Kubulan has retired, and Somare’s judicial review is before the National Court registry for listing.
Applying the law as set out by the Supreme Court in its ruling against suspended Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch, legal sources say they expect Somare to be suspended automatically when the chief justice appoints the tribunal head. “The Supreme Court ruling is binding and, if you apply that consistently, that should be the outcome,” the legal source said. In his press conference, Sir Mekere also made reference to the Pruaitch Supreme Court ruling on sections 27, 28 and 29 of the Organic Law on the duties and responsibilities of leadership. The ruling, he said, stipulated that suspension was obligatory once a leader was referred for misconduct or breach of the leadership code.

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