PNGi INVESTIGATES
‘Too good to be true’: the deal with an Isis-linked Australian family that betrayed PNG’s most marginalised
A sustainable forestry project established to develop some of PNG’s most marginalised communities has become mired in an international corruption scandal “There is always the stench of corruption around a deal that is too bad to be true or too good to be true,” a full-page advertisement in Papua New Guinea’s Post Courier baldly declared in May 2018. “Usually, because...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Ex-World Bank Funded Project Staff Net Chunk of COVID-19 Spending
In today’s second PNGi investigation we further examine the increasingly controversial world of government COVID-19 spending. Our focus is on a single payment of K394,000. It was made on the 8th of April 2020, to Pacifica Limited, for ‘Mobilisation of Pacifica Team’ under a contract titled ‘Communication Coordination’. According to the government’s procurement website, there was no tender or bidding...
THE COURT REPORT
Yama Bribery Scandal Takes Another Twist
...Ben Neneo ordered no further action be taken against Yama himself. Yali initiated legal action against the Neneo, arguing this failure constituted a breach of his constitutional rights. Judge Canning agreed. In a frank judgement Canning concluded that the Provincial Police Commander had ‘actively prevented’ any investigation of the complaint against Yama. Justice Canning acknowledged the courts should only intervene...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
How Don Polye helped swing the 2012 election for O’Neill
It was the year 2011. Papua New Guinea faced one of its worst constitutional crises. Two Prime Ministers faced off. On one side stood the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare and on the other Peter O’Neill, each claiming the Prime Ministership as rightfully theirs. Both men have a history of corruption and illegal dealings documented in judicially led inquiries and...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Tasion Group Chief Branded Corrupt Fraudster by Deputy Chief Justice
Sam Tasion is owner and Chairman of the Tasion Group. Its subsidiaries include a range of well known brands such as Freeway Motors, Europcar, Seeadler Bay Hotel, Roadside Assistance PNG and PNG Marine Works. Tasion likes to cultivate a public image of the self-made businessman and philanthropist. In a promotional piece published in The National, Tasion discloses the secrets to...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Is the net finally closing in on Isaac Lupari?
Isaac Brian Lupari has enjoyed a seat at the top table in Papua New Guinea’s political elite for more than two decades. As a career public servant Lupari headed several government departments and served as Ambassador to the European Union. He then ascended to the coveted and powerful position of Chief Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Department during 2007. Although...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
UBS, Oil Search and the Forgotten Middle Men
In February 2014 the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, committed the State to a financially disastrous purchase of a 10% stake in the publicly listed company Oil Search Limited. That purchase was funded unlawfully says the country’s chief corruption watchdog, through a financially onerous loan from the Swiss-based banking group UBS. Much has been written about the folly of those two...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Philip Eludeme and the third Manumanu Land Scandal
While much has been written and said about the Manumanu land scandal, the grossly inflated sums paid from taxpayer funds to Philip Eludeme, the long serving Chairman of the Central Supply and Tenders Board (CSTB), have been largely overlooked. Yet, Mr Eludeme walked away with a cool K16 million for two parcels of land that he had purchased four years...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Was the PNGDF Scammed out of K15.4m?
...includes the former politicians, Tim Neville and Ben Micah, expatriate lawyer Greg Sheppard, a sitting Judge, Kenneth Frank, and three Department Secretaries, Messrs John Porti, Dairi Vele and Romilly Kila Pat. The case centres on portion 698, a 30.6 hectare block of land abutting Port Moresby airport. According to the Administrative Inquiry report, ‘Defence needed a property in Port Moresby...