Naming names: Accomplices and facilitators.

By Susan Merrell

All roads lead to Rome.
This is a letter to the editor in Thursday's Post Courier  ('Yutok' 21 February, 2013):

Namah must own up
I would like to ask Belden Namah, Opposition Leader and Member for Vanimo Green to clear himself on a corruption issue that is hanging on his back so that people can see him walking the talk in parliament and in the media.
Can Mr Namah explain how his nominee was appointed as Chairman of the Central Supply & Tenders Board when he was Deputy Prime Minister?
Can he explain to the people of Papua New Guinea why his nominee was appointed without following the appointment criterias [sic] for that position as per the law?
Can he admit or deny the fact that the nominee was an accountant of a foreign road construction company before Mr Namah backed him to be Chairman of CSTB?
Could the Opposition Leader admit or deny the fact that the alleged firm had swindled millions and millions of our people’s money in the K300 million Highlands Highway Rehabilitation in 2006/2007 and again on the K100 million Lae roads in 2011/12?
As such, why then did that firm’s accountant was made Chairman of the key Government procurement agency without being first nominated by one of our country’s premier universities and cleared by the Public Services Commission prior to his appointment?"

Is he talking about Philip Eludeme? 

Eludeme has come to my attention before in relation to two matters - both the subject of governmental Commissions of Inquiry - one is in cahoots with the Opposition Leader, Belden Namah and the other, ironically in today's political climate, in association with Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.  He keeps illustrious company.

As Chairman of the Central Supply and Tendering Board, Eludeme occupies a role with a massive potential for corruption. The Board is responsible for the awarding of all government tenders. Cynically, one social media commentator described the role as "Mr 10%."   

A responsible government (and I believe the O'Neill/Namah government made the appointment) would take into consideration, on making the appointment, not only the scrupulously clean record of any applicant in this vital but sensitive appointment but also reject any candidate with any taint whatsoever, or even a mere whiff of a scandal. Wouldn't they?  Shouldn't they?

So consider: Quite apart from, and in addition to, the questions and allegations posed by the Post Courier letter writer involving hundreds of millions of kina, some other latent and blatant controversies in Eludeme's past.

Eludeme's CV comes littered with allegations of perjury, bribery and conspiring to cheat and defraud the state for which he was referred to the Commissioner of Police in the National Provident Fund Inquiry. 

The Inquiry also implicated (amongst others) the Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill and Jimmy Maladina, brother of the former Minister Moses.

In the Inquiry, Eludeme was further referred to the PNG Institute of Accountants for unprofessional conduct and to the Internal Revenue Commission on tax charges. (Post Courier November 2002).
To my knowledge, no convictions flowed from this Inquiry.

However, to suggest that PNG is satisfied by the outcome of the Inquiry is quite wrong.  Never a day goes by when this episode is not mentioned, in bitter tones, on a public forum. 
Lately, the opposition has climbed onto the bandwagon too demanding the government reopen the Inquiry, claiming they have new evidence (which O'Neill is sure doesn't exist).
But that's not all. 

There's more…

Ironically, Eludeme's name also comes up as an associate of the Opposition Leader in the yet-to-be-tabled SABL Inquiry over the Bewani Palm Oil deal. 
In this inquiry, the allegation has been made that permission was not granted for the deal with the correct landowners but was done with compliant ones "hand picked" by Belden Namah - who the witness identifies as being the Forestry Minister at the time.

This time Eludeme was fronting the company Bewani Palm Oil Management Ltd that owned 5% of the shares in a company controlling the palm oil development of 139,909 hectares of land in Bewani, Sandaun Province. His co directors have included, at times: Belden Namah, Bob Namah and Charles Litau 
Litau was a party apparatchik of Belden Namah's PNG Party.  During the O'Neill/Namah administration he was made acting head of PNG Telikom.  It was a controversial appointment with many claiming that he did not have the required qualifications and that there were better men for the job. 
…and more:

Lawyer Tom Sirae was also called up before the SABL Inquiry to answer questions as the registered company secretary of Bewani Palm Oil Development Ltd.  Sirae claimed no knowledge that he held (or still held) that post and couldn't recall anything whatsoever.
Sirae was working for Henao lawyers at the time of the Bewani deal (prior to starting his own firm in 2009) whose principal, Loani Henao unsuccessfully contested a Port Moresby seat on behalf of Belden Namah's, PNG Party in the elections of 2012.

However, Henao's association with the Opposition Leader didn't end there. He is now acting on behalf of Namah in his Manus Island Detention Centre court challenge.
To add to the confusion, the company of which Sirae was registered secretary was different to Philip Eludeme's company - but the name only differed by one word (Management).  The Bewani plantation deal boasts a labyrinth of companies, all confusingly similar in name.
The company that was granted the SABL, for instance, was Bewani Oil Palm Development Ltd, whereas the company granted the Forestry Clearance Authority (FCA) in the following year was Bewani Palm Oil Development Ltd.

Belden Namah was the incumbent Forestry Minister who pushed through parliament the amendments to the 1991 Forestry Act (sections 90a and 90b) in 2007 that paved the way for the Bewani deal (2008/2009) - the Malaysian recipients also gaining a 10-year tax holiday from PNG's generous Forestry Minister.
Belden Namah, on launching the Bewani project, took time to thank Vanimo Forest Products (A subsidiary of RH) and Amanab56, (Namah's own company), for the construction of roads in the province… Ha!
Which leads us to Amanab 56…and more familiar characters… Indeed, all roads lead to Rome.