Radio New Zealand International
AN ADVOCATE FOR INDIGENOUS Australians has taken extended leave without pay from the Cape York Institute soon after his role in the demolition of Port Moresby’s Paga Hill settlement was exposed.
The Cape York Institute, which works with government on welfare reform for Aboriginal communities, says its chief executive, Gudmundur Fridriksson, is now concentrating on his Papua New Guinea interests.
He is chairman and secretary of the Paga Hill Development Company, which claimed a lease over prime Port Moresby real estate at Paga Hill in a land deal criticised by a parliamentary committee.
Meanwhile, Dr Kristian Laslett of the International State Crime Initiative, says after the company ordered the demolition of Paga Hill settlers’ homes in May, Mr Fridriksson’s past in PNG has come under scrutiny:
“He ran a consultancy company called CCS Anvil, and CCS Anvil was censured in two Auditor General reports and three Public Accounts Committee reports,” Dr Laslett said.
“CCS Anvil had been acting as an agent for the Public Curator’s Office.
“They had allegedly been selling assets of deceased estates and then rather than putting that money into trust accounts, they had been keeping it themselves.”
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