Lae community leader and businessman Fred Wak has said the Papua New Guinea Government must take immediate steps to expose and deal with people alleged to be involved in corrupt dealings, if the National Alliance-led coalition wants to maintain the confidence and trust of the people.
Mr Wak urged the Government to act firmly against corruption involving people in high offices including senior ministers and departmental heads. “We are sitting on a time bomb. People who are feeling pain are told repeatedly that millions of kina are lost or kept in secret bank accounts somewhere. They are going to rise up one day,” he told the Post-Courier newspaper.
Mr Wak was responding to a report in the Post-Courier that K100 million in public funds allocated to the PNG Forest Authority had gone missing. “Again we hear that this involves the forest sector, just like we were told of the K145 million from log export levy that was kept in a Singapore bank account,” he said.
“What is wrong with this country? The Government is doing nothing. We are not told if the police or the Ombudsman Commission or anyone in the law and justice sector is doing anything about the corruption cases that are exposed already. We just can’t allow these people to get away with all the money they have taken from the ordinary people, the very people who are seething with frustration and anger out there because they think their MPs and government lets them down,” Mr Wak said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Central Supply and Tenders Board, Brian Kimmins, has told an official inquiry investigating alleged massive fraud and mismanagement of public money that many government departments had failed to follow tendering processes prescribed under the Act.
Mr Kimmins said the Board was working on ways to further improve transparency in procurement which would have a positive impact on accountability and the confidence of people, contractors and donors.
Source: Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 24 September 2008
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