Anti-corruption crusader guilty of misconduct in office

Prominent MP, government Minister and self-styled anti-corruption crusader, Bryan Kramer has been found guilty on eight counts of misconduct in office by a Leadership Tribunal. The Tribunal was originally appointed in September 2022 to investigate 13 allegations of misconduct referred by the Public Prosector following an investigation by the Ombudsman Commission. During the Tribunal Hearings, one allegation was withdrawn on...

Paga Hill Water Frontage for K8,400 PA – Poh Dynasty Strike Another Bargain

...to the hill and its surrounds. So it appears they will also be left empty handed – a fact pointed to by the Institute of National Affairs’ Executive Director, Paul Barker. Image: Paul Barker comments on Paga Hill Paradise (Source: Facebook) PNGi put the following questions to Jimmy Poh via Lee Partners who are administering Twin Towers Development’s corporate filings....

Fraud, corruption and mismanagement – a window into the failings of the DSIP system

...New Guinea. Each DDA receives K10 million a year in funding under the District Service Improvement Program. But, as the Institute of National Affairs executive director, Paul Barker, recently highlighted, there is a complete lack of accountability for how the Authorities use that public money. Governance oversight, transparency and checks and balance are supposed to come from the Department of...

Chinese Network Implicated in RPNGC Bribery Scheme

At his Morata home on the 20th of May 2018, Senior Sergeant Apollos Terry claims that local businessman Onne Bani and his accomplices offered a K100,000 payment wrapped in newspaper in return for dropping charges against Bani’s business partner, Chinese national Aaron Cui (aka Zhiyuan Cui). Senior Sergeant Terry reported the matter to the Police Commissioner’s office. After a successful...

Paraka ordered to pay K6.6 million to workers superfund

Controversial lawyer and aspiring politician, Paul Paraka, has been ordered by the National court to pay over K6.6 million in unpaid rent and interest to Nambawan Superfund Limited. Nambawan Super is PNG’s largest superannuation fund provider and is the owner of the Mogoru Moto building in downtown Port Moresby, where Paraka’s law firm was based from 2013. In June 2020,...

Christian Life Centre obtained fraudulent land title from NHC

...the court who at the NHC the defendants application was submitted to, and the letter of application contained only a reference to a “Mr Paul A” without stating who he was. The Pastor also did not say he was unaware of the plaintiff’s prior application for the lease or how he came to know the property was being sold. He...

Prosecution Alleges Paraka Directed Expansive Laundromat

...Berrigan, details were provided of an alleged money laundering scheme involving eight law firms. Justice Berrigan summarises its core features as claimed by the prosecution: “It is alleged that the accused [Paul Paraka] caused the law firms to receive the payments, remove their commission and then transfer the monies to two accounts in the name of PPL [Paul Paraka Lawyers],...

Red flagged company wins new Duran Farm contract

...Nayabbanung, was also committed to stand trial for his alleged role in illegally signing over the land titles to PNG Resources Corporation. Police allege that Nayabbanung and former NHC acting Principal Legal Officer, Paul Pera, signed the contracts for the transfer of 301 land titles to PNG Resources Corporation Limited trading as Kwik Build PNG. It is alleged that PNG...

Health leak reveals how major corruption investigations stall

...At the centre of this controversy is senior Health Department official, Paul Dopsie, who stands accused by private sector contractor, Harupe Peke, of extorting significant bribes. According to Peke he was initially bullied into withdrawing his allegation but fronted the Public Accounts Committee in 2019 to reinstate his serious claim. While this is only one instance, among many, of serious...

Death toll climbs yet again as Health Dept reforms fall flat

...audit included details of corruption levelled against the Executive Manager Corporate Services, Paul Dopsie. In 2017, the Managing Director of a logistics company engaged by the Department of Health, alleged his company had paid K265,500 to Mr Dopsie in order to facilitate contract payments. The audit found the Health Secretary had not investigated the complaint nor referred it to the...

Yama fails in latest bid to quash criminal charges

It is a familiar story, one that PNGi has reported on numerous times before. The nation’s elite politicians and businessmen using their wealth and position to mount numerous legal challenges to delay criminal charges or civil sanction. Peter O’Neill, Paul Paraka, Patrick Pruaitch and many more are all adept at manipulating the system to retain their positions of power, and...

Paraka fails again in his attempts to avoid justice

Notorious lawyer and serial litigator, Paul Paraka, has failed in his latest attempt to avoid justice over an alleged K162 million fraud, committed between 2007 and 2011. The National Court has refused to grant Paraka a court order to quash or permanently block the indictment against him issued by the Public Prosecutor. This is the second such decision by the...

NHC Targets Grieving Widow in Illegal Sell Off to Foreign Businessperson

Australian Aristocrats and Sir Ted Diro at the Centre of ‘Massive Fraud’ Allegations

In 2016 a parliamentary question was submitted to the Minister for Commerce and Trade Richard Maru. It centred on a 5,000 hectare plantation in Central Province known as Koitaki plantation. The Member for Kairuku-Hiri, Peter Isoaimo, noted ‘the ownership and sale of Koitaki Plantation has somehow landed in the hands of shareholders and directors of a company that is associated...

Court dismisses Paraka’s bid to avoid justice

...a guilty verdict being passed slowly, slowly decreases. Not necessarily because the accused is innocent, but because the tools which a prosecutor needs to meet the high evidentiary threshold for proving criminal guilt have gone blunt over time. Which is why the current tactics being employed by controversial lawyer and would-be politician Paul Paraka, whatever his intent, are in effect...

Key facts behind mysterious plane crash

...records indicate GAS is not the current owner. According to Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority records, the current registered owner of the Cessna aircraft VH-TSI, is Ravenpol No. 69 Limited, a company based in Port Moresby. According to the records of the Investment Promotion Authority, Ravenpol No. 69 is a company owned by a Geoffrey Paul Bull. According to the...

Rent arrears stacked up while Paraka ran for Parliament

In 2017, controversial lawyer Paul Paraka, tried to wrest control of the National Capital District from the incumbent governor, Powes Pakop, by contesting the NCD regional seat in the National election. Meanwhile, unbeknown to voters, Paraka was running up a huge debt in unpaid rents for his legal offices in downtown Port Moresby. Paraka’s landlord, Nambawan Super Limited, is PNG’s...

Farmers Swindled out of K2 Million by Dept Secretaries

...own or have any interest in any coffee plantations in the Waghi Valley‘. Its original shareholder structure included Paul Kerenga Ansphill (20%), George Lance Pera (20%), John Michael Poro (20%), Paul Enny Murung (20%) and Mathew Wela Kanua (20%). Later on 13 July 2004, Paul Kerenga Ansphill and George Lance Pera transferred their shares to Valentine Kambori. This created the...

Durand Farm: Dodgy Deals and Dashed Dreams

Few plots of land have courted controversy like Durand Farm. Situated near the Waigani swamp, in the early 1990s it was earmarked for a squatter resettlement scheme. The National Capital District Commission (NCDC) proceeded to acquired the land from Sir Hugo Berghuser MBE, under conditions condemned by the Ombudsman Commission. For years the land lay undeveloped. Then in 2014 Prime...

PNG Architect Defeats Malaysian Timber Dynasty

Architect, Lucky Manoka, from Barakau village in Central Province served the public for ten years at the National Housing Commission, and National Capital District Commission. After earning a Master’s in Architectural Studies at the University of Queensland Manoka went into private practice. Manoka later established a company in 2005, Bootless View Estate Limited, along with two colleagues Willia Lapa and...

How a murky foreign outfit attempted to bankrupt PNG

Few will forget the Commission of Inquiry into Special Agricultural and Business Leases. It exposed grabbing of customary land on an epic scale. Chief Commissioner John Numapo memorably remarked in 2013, “with corrupt government officials from implementing agencies riding shotgun for them, opportunistic loggers masquerading as agro-forestry developers are prowling our countryside, scoping opportunities to take advantage of gullible landowners...

ONeill, Paraka and a Senior Whistleblower

In December 2018 charges against controversial lawyer Paul Paraka were dismissed by the Magistrates Court. A fresh prosecution has now been successfully instated on a single count of misappropriation. During the interim period, Paraka claimed ‘I will prosecute those bastards myself’. He was referring to those who had mounted the original criminal case against him. One individual in particular was...

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...

Eastern Highlands Grandee Smith-Kela Implicated in Trust Account Plunder

...Finance and Paul Makeso, Acting Treasurer in the Provincial Administration. Image: The Ombudsman Commission has published its findings in a lengthy report. The trust account was opened on 20 August 2009 with the Bank of South Pacific, Goroka Branch, at Cathy Ali’s request; she ‘assumed and exercised ministerial powers she did not have’. Account signatories included Mr Makeso, and the...