Pod borer’s K1.5m goes into pockets

NATIONAL REPORTS

MORE than K1.5 million from the K7 million, allocated by the national government to combat the Asian cocoa pod borer outbreak in the country, was misappropriated between 2008 and last year.
An internal audit and investigations conducted by the Kokanas Indastri Koporesen and the cocoa board revealed massive institutionalised corruption and misappropriation of public funds allegedly by the directors and managers of the PNG Cocoa Coconut Industry Ltd.
A copy of the audit and investigation report obtained by The National showed that dubious payments were made from the CCI main account No.191061 while some of the payments were double-dipping.
According to the report, the acting executive manager corporate services was paid cash totalling more than K38,000 between March and December 2008, which were deemed “excessive”, especially for personal use.
Auditors also found that a deputy chairman was paid more than K13,000 but the monies were not used for the purposes intended for.
The report said another lot of payments, totalling K7,500 made to Department of National Planning workers, were found to be dubious in nature as they were undocumented.
A total of more than K200,000, made to a workshop in Palmalmal, was also found to be excessive and could not be justified.
“The payments were dubious in nature and they were made intentionally to defraud the institute,” auditors said in the report.

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