PNGBLOGS

by BRYAN KRAMER Part 1 of this article was relation the Secretary of Treasury Dairi Vele being wanted by Members of Task Force Sweep and National Fraud & Anti-Corruption over allegations of Official Corruption, Misappropriation and Fraud. The article canvassed the allegations that facilitated a secret payment of K50 million to procure the purchase of two turbine generators in December 2013. This article will cover an in depth analysis on the issues and facts as presented in Part 1; charges defined by law and the key elements of the offence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Official Corruption is a criminal offence prescribed under the Section 87 of the Criminal Code. It relates to a person employed in the public service or holding any public office, who corruptly asks, receives, or procures (facilitates) any property or benefit for himself or any other person, is guilty of a crime. The penalty is imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years and a fine at the discretio

Diari Vele Secretary of Treasury is wanted by Members of Task Force Sweep and National Fraud & Anti-Corruption Directorate to effect his arrest and lay formal charges of official corruption, misappropriation and fraud. Sources at the District Court confirmed warrant of arrest was issued on Wednesday 22nd July 2015. It's alleged Vele has gone into hiding after being tipped about his planned arrest. The charges against him relate to allegations he facilitated a secret transaction of K50 million through Bank of PNG to an Israeli Company LR Group for the purchase of two power generators on 19th of December 2013. It's alleged Vele acted on the written directions of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to secure K50 million from the 2013 Budget and transfer the funds to Bank of PNG to facilitate the transaction. In doing so breached the proper processes under the Public Finance (Management) Act rendering the payment unlawful. Thus amounting to Official Corruption,

by PAUL J REINBARA Name alike, do alike –Geoffrey Vaki v Gari Baki It is not an uncommon incident to see those who are named alike do alike. The two names Geoffrey Vaki and Gari Baki rhyme but do they in conduct? Some Commonalities observed are as follows. APPOINTMENT Both men were budded (taken from outside) into the post of the Commissioner of Police by the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill under very suspicious circumstances. The appointments were made amidst imminent arrest of PM O’Neill relating to his approval of fraudulent payments to controversial law firm Paul Paraka Lawyers. The appointment and/or removal of Commissioner of Police just like any other head of a Department, goes through a merit based appointment process, which includes public advertisement, consultation with the Public Service Commission and NEC. Public records show that none of these processes were invoked in the appointment/removal of these two Commissioners. THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS AFTER APPOI

Maprik Open MP, John Simon (centre) celebrating the golden victory of the Simbinali family; Cesley (left of MP Simon) displaying her double gold medals and mum Angela (right of MP) also displaying her gold medal while dad Alois (left of Cesley) was flanked by the Maprik community in Port Moresby in the celebration. Pic by CYRIL GARE. by CYRIL GARE PORT MORESBY: Debutant twenty two year old East Sepik lass, Cesley Simbinali will never forget the events of the 15 th Pacific Games held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea July 4-18, 2015 where she fought the odds to bag two Gold medals respectively for her country in Lawn Bowls. The apogee of her life was out-shone in the women pairs (doubles) final playoff against a strong competitive Fijian side after she and team mate, Ju Carlo outclassed their opponents for the top spot. Fiji settled for Silver instead while Cook Islands took out Bronze.   That wasn’t all, she snatched her second Gold medal in the women 4’s category, even mor

  by YAKAN LEPAKALI It was shocking, shocking in a sense of embarrassment to read in the Post Courier (16/07/2015) the revelation of disparity that is evident in the city of Port Moresby. An athlete, after the games, went strolling to the outskirts of the city only to envisage people in settlements worse off than people in settlements in Fiji. Another commented, people have an attitude issue and generally dirty.  I don’t want to buy into the comment on people being generally dirty but on the notion of attitude and poverty, this is a really check. Such observation must be considered as constructive criticism to take an informed approach alleviating the status quo rather than dwelling on the negativity. Adding to the despair, upon arrival of the athletes at Jacksons international airport, waiting buses ferried the athletes away to the gaming village but disgraceful to watch luggage loaded onto open-back trucks exposed. Luggage for the athletes should have been transported in an en

by GREG WAIYAP The XV Pacific Games celebrations are over and now we have to get back to business. Among the debriefing, a reconciliation of public funds spent on the various infrastructures will undoubtedly be carried out in due course. Though many unlearned Papua New Guineans naively celebrated the scenic modern infrastructures, the thinking ones held back their emotions as they rationalise the net benefit gained for the overly priced two weeks event.   It is open secret that many of the companies involved in the construction of the Pacific Games facilities doubled, tripled or even quadrupled the price of those projects. Variations were approved in millions of kina. Whilst many facilitates were completed just before the games, one company that has let Papua New Guineans down big time is Curtain Brothers, owned by Townsville Based businessman Sir Mick Curtain. This company was contracted to construct the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium at Konedobu. At some stage of the project, Curtain Br

Photo Credit: MESSER SMITH by STELLA PAULUS As we debate the reasons for the riot in Madang, let us not stray from the bigger picture of why it happened in the first place. In order to do so we have to look at our history.  Whilst Papua New Guinea was still 30 years into celebrating its freedom from the terrorism of colonialism, it was soon to learn that Australia was not going to let go of the reigns that easily. December 2003, Australia forces PNG into agreeing for the installation of the Australian Government’s Enhanced Cooperation Program (ECP) in the country. If not the Australian Government would pull the plug on the annual aid payment through what is known as AUSAID. The program enabled the direct control of PNG’s justice, economic and policing policies under which the Australian Federal Police (AFP) was introduced into the country.  However, on May 13 2005, a Somare-backed court ruling found that the protection against the law enjoyed by most Australian Federal P