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THE COURT REPORT
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 During the Tribunal Hearings, one allegation was withdrawn on...
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New Vice-Minister for State Negotiations Comes with a Foreboding Past
The newly elected first-time MP, Jimmy Maladina, a man once described by Justice Sakora as the ‘manipulative member’ of a ‘conspiratorial criminal cabal’, has been quickly elevated up the parliamentary ranks by the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Marape recently announced Maladina has been appointed Vice Minister for State Negotiations. It is a role to which Jimmy Maladina could be well...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Allegations of Serious Mismanagement at Kumul Agriculture
While there is no shortage of political intrigue over gas, oil and minerals in this country, agriculture remains the lifeblood of the nation. Despite the practical importance of agriculture, it has never received the level of public policy attention and state investment it warrants. A brief glimmer of light emerged with the launch of a special state-owned company dedicated to...
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UBS loan was an ‘unnecessary disaster’ for PNG and its people
...It was a disaster that was orchestrated by the then Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill. Mr O’Neill’s decision to take out the A$1.39 billion loan was, say the lawyers, entirely voluntary and unnecessary and led to an ‘enormous loss of K862 million and the lost opportunity to put that money to better use’. The loan was deemed necessary by the Prime...
THE COURT REPORT
Policemen Jailed for Preventing Prime Minister O’Neill’s Arrest
Three career police officers are currently languishing in Bomana prison, locked up by the courts for the role they played in protecting the then Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, from arrest in 2014 over allegations he personally authorised the payment of K71 million by the State to Paraka lawyers. While ultimately O’Neill successfully dodged the Paraka scandal by disbanding his own...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
UBS Bank, a global serial offender, overcharged PNG A$175 million report claims
UBS Bank has gained notoriety in Papua New Guinea for its prominent role in the government’s disastrous 2014 purchase of Oil Search shares which has ended up costing ordinary taxpayers more than K1 billion in total. In the most recent evidence submitted to the ongoing Commission of Inquiry it has been alleged that UBS extracted as much as A$175 million...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
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...
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Landowner funds flushed down broken corporate pipes
...Queental Limited a shell company with one asset at the time the purchase was made, K15 million in land. Former Queental Limited shareholders include then Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, a fact covered in a previous PNGi story. The Petroleum Resources Kutubu Board issued a heated response to that PNGi investigation. A media release purported to be from Petroleum Resources Kutubu’s...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Conservation area invaded by logging company
...intervene in support of the landowners. Logs from the Kimadi Conservation area being removed for export. Woodbank Pacific Limited is owned by Malaysian national Tiong Sii Huang. Huang has extensive business interests in PNG and is a business associate of former Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, having served on the Board of one of his companies, Paradise Breweries Limited, from 2018-2019....
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Landowner Funds Mismanaged on a Grand Scale: Gobe Petroleum Part 2
Oil has been flowing from the Gobe oilfields in the remote hinterland of Papua New Guinea for almost 25 years. The revenues from that oil has fed the profits of several international oil companies and bloated the incomes of some PNG politicians and bureaucrats, yet, as PNGi has recently exposed government indifference and incompetence means the people whose land is...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Revealed – The Two MPs Tied to Abuse of Office Scandal
...only politician tied to the abuse of power committed by the Works Secretary. Evidence presented to the national court contains allegations that a senior member of government in 2011 attempted to ratify and approve Luma’s criminal abuse of power. An audit conducted by the Works Department alleges that ‘the [then] Minister for Works, Peter O’Neill, had given handwritten approval for...
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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...
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Is Ihu SEZ a new honey pot for rent seekers and profiteers?
...labour laws, all of which is designed to attract major investments. The project is led by Peter KenGemar, a geologist and a business partner of Mozammil Gulam Abbas Bhojani who was recently convicted in Australia over a conspiracy to bribe local officials in Nauru. There is no suggestion KenGemar was implicated in this conspiracy. This comes against a wider backdrop...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
O’Neill Linked to Irregular Land Deal Uncovered by Deloitte
...Peter O’Neill was a shareholder in Queental Limited via his holding vehicle LBJ Investments, it is a matter that must in all justice be investigated by authorities to ensure this deal was in full compliance with the law and leadership code. PNGi reached out to LBJ Investments, Queental Limited, and MRDC for comment on this irregular transaction. No response was...
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
Marape resurrects defunct Konebada statutory body mired in fraud allegations
What would you do as the Prime Minister – upon assuming the captain’s seat you discover a statutory authority mired in mismanagement, lavish spending, tax evasion, fraud and potentially misappropriation, all of which has cost the public over K13 million. Added to that, it is a statutory authority whose actions were so unsightly even the O’Neill government found it beyond...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Sand mining plans littered with red flags
Update: On 1st March 2021, it was revealed that Niugini Sands had withdrawn its sand mining exploration licence application. In a letter to campaigners, the Mineral Resource Authority cited the bad publicity the application had received as the reason for the application being withdrawn. Update: This article was updated on 16 Dec. 2020 after further information was received from Derrick...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
MRA accused of steamrolling sand mining approval
Coastal communities from the Sumkor district of Madang province are crying foul over plans by overseas company Niugini Sands, to mine sand on their customary land. They say the Mineral Resource Authority is fast-tracking government approval and steamrolling over their rights at the same time. It is a familiar tale, a large-scale natural resource extraction project being imposed on local...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Was Peter Graham right to slam PM Marape over Kumul Minerals Board Shake-Up?
Last Friday a resignation letter attributed to the head of Kumul Minerals Holdings, Peter Graham, began circulating on social media. In the letter Graham informs Prime Minister Marape he is standing down as Chairman and Managing Director at Kumul Minerals, a state entity that manages the government’s mining interests. In the leaked resignation letter Graham observes that this decision was...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
COVID-19 Spending Alert
...revealed to be NKW Holdings. Baker notes, NKW Holdings ‘was on Bank South Pacific’s “watchlist” for unpaid debts at the time it was engaged by [Australia’s] Home Affairs [Department]’. Baker continues, ‘its directors include provincial government officials and retired PNG Supreme Court judge Don Sawong, who in 2017 unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s political party’....
THE TOKAUT BLOG
The Untouchables: Yama Family Deja Vu
...convicted and sentenced to nine-months imprisonment. The courts have ordered steps be taken to correct this egregious injustice. However, it is now three-years since the 2017 election and Peter Yama has yet to face court. This is not though an isolated case. Peter Yama appears to have evaded police investigation and prosecution on a number of occasions. PNGi can also...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
K53 Million in Health Dept Contracts Go To Gang of Red Flag Firms: Part I
...sustained additional criticism from Eastern Highlands Governor, Peter Numu. whilst the biggest winner of large scale contracts accounted in this quarterly report was William Onglo, a current MP. It cannot be inferred on the basis of red flags that these infrastructure contracts were secured illegally. Red flags, however, are widely accepted due diligence signals commonly associated with illegal activity or...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Djoko Tjandra Arrested in Malaysia, the Fugitive PNG Politicians Protected
...the Prime Minister (Peter O’Neill) for a review the Foreign Minister’s decision. At NEC meeting No 01/2013 on 6 February 2013, the request was deliberated on. Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Kerenga Kua, supported the Foreign Minister, arguing he be empowered to seek a National Court order revoking and nullifying Tjandra’s citizenship. The Ombudsman Commission then recounts the strange...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Key facts behind mysterious plane crash
...the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Avlease Pty Ltd is registered in Victoria and based in Alice Springs. It is owned by two other companies, V M Carter Pty Ltd (which holds 20 shares) and Ians Holdings Pty Ltd (10 shares). The only listed Director of Avlease is an Ian Peter Scheyer. Digging a little deeper, PNGi has established that...