PNGBLOGS

by  BRYAN KRAMER   Director of National Fraud & Anti-corruption Directorate Mathew Damaru was formally charged by Police under Section 197 of Criminal Code for allegedly making a false declaration and statement. The provision is in the following terms; "(1) A person who, on any occasion on which he is permitted or required by law to make a statement or declaration before a person authorized by law to permit it to be made before him, makes a statement or declaration before that person that is to his knowledge false in a material particular is guilty of a misdemeanour." "Penalty: Imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years." "(2) A person cannot be convicted of an offence against Subsection (1) on the uncorroborated testimony of one witness." The charges relate to Contempt of Court proceedings filed against the Commissioner of Police Gary Baki by Damaru and his Deputy Director Timothy Gitua. Both Damaru and Gitua filed the pro

by MICHAEL J. PASSINGAN   In a Minute dated 30/07/2015, controversial Police Commissioner Gari Baki wrote to his controversial Acting Deputy Commissioner Raphael Huafolo with the following contents: “This is to reiterate my previous instruction to the National Fraud Squad Anti-Corruption Directorate. No more Warrants of Arrests are to be obtained direct from the Courts. All requests for Warrants of Arrest by Police are to be referred to you for vetting and approval prior to referral to the Courts. Bring this to the notice of NFACD. Breaches will result in departmental action taken against officer concerned.” This minute is believed to have been circulated to all the Police throughout the country as there are fraud and corruption divisions and officers in all the provinces. PNG Blogs approached a prominent lawyer who has been practising law since the early 1990s and the lawyer bluntly said “unconstitutional and corruption at the highest level.” The lawyer said “ap

by PAUL AMATIO The recent reshuffle of the senior police hierarchy and command should not really surprise many. It was mooted earlier by Mr. Baki and has finally been effected. That includes the restructuring of the command structure. I guess that given the expansion in the population of the nation, such a restructuring is timely and beneficial to the constabulary. There only remains the task of finding enough men to fully outfit the various commands – not to mention the infrastructure and logistics required to maintain them and sustain them. But that is a political problem. Will the government give enough funding to ensure that this initiative by the Commissioner indeed fulfils its intention? With the 2017 General Elections around the corner, this structure also makes it much easier in terms of coordination, command and control. The movement of senior officers is also a good move, one would think. Many of those who have been in PHQ need to be moved out so they can effectively imple