FORENSICALLY ANALYSING GRAND CORRUPTION IN PNG
by Professor Kristian Lasslett MAKING THE INVISIBLE, VISIBLE The problem with corruption in PNG, at its most grand levels, is that it is everywhere and nowhere. Its morbid symptoms are apparent for all to see, but the particular mechanisms through which the disease of corruption infects governments and markets, and disables the body of the nation, proves difficult to observe, owing to its secretive nature. Yet in order to fight corruption effectively, we need to answer elementary questions relating to its core characteristics. For example, what type of corrupt transactions are most common and damaging in PNG, who are the participants, what motivates them, how do they make their illicit gains, what do they spend it on, and which institutional structures permit these illegal activities to take place? Despite the difficulties associated with observing corruption, we can still pull together enough credible data from the civil and criminal courts, commissions of inquiries, nati