Prime Minister maintains innocence,Sacks Attorney General, Disband Task Force Sweep


The desperate circus leader with his sideshow clowns.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill maintained his innocence in the fraudulent payment of millions of public funds to Paraka Lawyers and deplored the manner in which a warrant of arrest was issued to arrest him.
He has directed the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to be headed by Justice Warwick Andrews.
He believes his arrest is politically motivated and is a result of the changes he made in government when he removed certain government ministers.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill hosted a media conference today, backed by all PNC cabinet members and ministers and other coalition partners, including Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion, as a show of solidarity.
He again denied signing the letter authorising the payment of millions of kina to Paul Paraka, and said that claims that his arrest were based on new evidence were all done by people with vested interests.
He says organizations and government departments involved in dealing with the Paraka saga have all compromised their roles and a Commission of Inquiry was needed to solve this.
He said the inquiry was crucial to build many institutions who have compromised their roles in the Paraka saga. He said even the Task Force Sweep team is subject to this inquiry as some of its officers and investigations have also been compromised.
Prime Minister O’Neill promised that recommendations from this inquiry will be presented to the Public Prosecutor and those found guilty, including himself, will be duly prosecuted.
He further said the engagement of Paraka lawyers was done years ago, even before he became Prime Minister, and no-one disputed the payments until he issued a directive on the 13th of May 2013 for this to be investigated.
Deputy Governor, Leo Dion, Enga Governor, Peter Ipatas, Trade and Industry Minister, Richard Maru, and NCD Governor, Powes Parkop, all expressed concern on the manner in which the Prime Minister was treated, saying proper protocols were not followed.
They also appealed to the media, including social media, not to speculate and to report responsibly.

*****

Is it true that Peter O'Neill said as reported by EMTV tonight: "He further said the engagement of Paraka lawyers was done years ago, even before he became Prime Minister, and no-one disputed the payments until he issued a directive on the 13th of May 2013 for this to be investigated"?
It's on record/audio & visual recording (a Talkback FM 100 interview) that the Opposition Leader Hon. Belden Namah and Deputy Opposition Leader Hon. Sam Basil initially disputed in 2012 the initial payment made to Paul Paraka Lawyers. We believe that if the Prime Minister had acted on the complaint by the Opposition in 2012 then many millions of State funds (tax payers money) would have been saved. Here are excerpts of an article I did in September last year which was published by PNG Blogs at the time:
The Opposition Leader Hon. Belden Namah had tabled the letter on the floor of parliament on the 23rd of May 2013 after he was shouted down by certain MP’s when he tried to read the letter out loud ‘so everyone can understand’. That was the session, you may recall, when Peter O’Neill told Belden Namah ‘Don’t you worry, I will do you in slowly’. The previous week - on May 17th 2013 - after the Speaker initially prevented the Opposition Leader from asking questions about the ‘staggering’ 71.8 million Kina in public funds allegedly paid fraudulently to Paul Paraka Lawyers - Belden Namah advised during a press conference: “let me just go back in history in time, when I was the Deputy Prime Minister and Forest Minister in the government - O’Neill Namah government - I had a similar press conference on this issue on Paul Paraka lawyers. It was never reported on media, either in the EMTV, Kundu or Post and National.”

During Talkback on FM100 (22/5/13), the Deputy Opposition Leader Sam Basil also advised that the matter had been brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and the media – in 2012 prior to the elections. “We talked about half of the 71 million – 30 million of the 71 million. We brought it to light. We said look there is illegal payments going on here. Somebody do something. Prime Minister do something. And we expect the media to throw the light over it during that press conference. To our surprise none of the media outlet ran the story. Even the Prime Minister knew that we had raised the concern regarding those payments; he did nothing about it and if the press would have done something about it and publicized that press conference we would have saved forty million now.”
In a statement dated 13 September 2013, authorized for release by Task Force Sweep Chairman Sam Koim, the public was advised that “Investigations by Task-Force Sweep reveal that officers at Finance Department continued to pay Paul Paraka Lawyers since March 2007 in total defiance of two Supreme Court Stay Orders preventing any payment to that law firm. They did so by paying monies into eight (8) different law firms and a nominee company of Mr Paraka. Department of Finance even paid service providers of Paraka Lawyers directly on account of Paraka Lawyers. From the evidence available to Task-Force Sweep, the total amount paid since March 2007 has gone up to almost K300 million. That amount excludes payments made to this law firm during the tenure of their brief out and prior to the Supreme Court stay orders. Many more heads will roll in the coming days. Meanwhile, Mr Paul Paraka has gone into hiding. He was invited by the Police Fraud Squad to come for an interview since more than a week ago but did not turn up. Anybody has information to his whereabouts; please report to the National Fraud Squad.”

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