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THE TOKAUT BLOG
Fact-Checking the Kramer Allegations
Outspoken MP for Madang, Bryan Kramer, has again been sending shockwaves through Waigani, with allegations of a potential grand scale rort, that lands at the Prime Minister’s front-door. The backdrop centres on an official report produced on the damages to Parliament caused by security force riots, following unpaid APEC allowances. The report estimates the damage to Parliament at K8.5 million,...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
An Australian Mega-Scandal: The 10 Red Flags at Manus
Last week the Australian Financial Review (AFR) published a series of hard-hitting investigative reports into the award of $423 million in security contracts for the Manus Island detention centre – a controversial mechanism used by the Australian government to offshore its widely criticised refugee policy. The contracts went to Paladin Solutions PNG Ltd, whose principals include Ian Duncan Stewart, and...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
From Central City to Konebada: Milking Two White Elephants
For almost a decade, according to the nation’s public accounting agencies, a tight-knit group of largely expatriates illegally milked two mega-projects that were meant to deliver benefits and services to the people of Central Province. Over K20 million in public money is reported to have been spent with derisory results. In two special inquiry reports produced by the Auditor General’s...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
The Birth of Kleptocracy: A Eulogy for the Nation
In the late 1980s Judge Tos Barnett prepared what would become a classic study on forestry sector corruption – The Commission of Inquiry into Aspects of the Forestry Industry. During his investigation, Judge Barnett cast a spotlight on the Angus Group of Companies and their bid to secure the Gadaisu forestry permit area in Central Province. The story of the...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
PNGi 2018 – A Quick Review
In 2018, PNGi published more than seventy reports, articles and profiles that all highlighted aspects of the rampant corruption afflicting Papua New Guinea. This corruption is distorting the economy, entrenching gross inequalities, causing immeasurable harm and suffering to individuals, families and whole communities and it has destroyed our democratic government. Looking back across the reports, there are many reoccurring themes...
THE COURT REPORT
Jimmy Maladina and the 2017 Election Mystery
Blink and you would have missed it. During February 2018 one of the many petitions challenging the 2017 national election results was dismissed. It was alleged by the unsuccessful candidate Glenn Tobewa, that Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, Davis Steven MP, won the Esa’ala Open seat using bribery. While Tobewa’s allegations were rejected by the National Court, wrapped within this...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
PNG Elite Ensures Anti-corruption Agencies Under-funded
In 2018, numerous corruption scandals were exposed that demonstrate how the political elite in Papua New Guinea are unlawfully enriching themselves and their cronies at the expense of the majority of the population. Manumanu, ADB funded bridge contracts, APEC spending, the National Housing Corporation rorts, health spending, Cloudy Bay Forestry, KPPA and Woodlark Island logging, the list of scams just...
THE COURT REPORT
Peter Yama dodges electoral bribery charge
Unprecedented violence, fraud and intimidation “hijacked” the 2017 national election. There was ‘widespread fraud and malpractice, and extensive vote rigging’ says Nicole Haley, an associate professor at the Australian National University and the lead author of an in depth study into the election. It is against this backdrop that on 3 October 2018 two election officials were convicted by the...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Momis is the Word on Bougainville
PNGi has recently put a spotlight on provincial administrations across the country. Often overshadowed by the corruption big leagues in Waigani, provincial administrations have proven to be intractable sites of abuse. Today PNGi turns to the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). As Bougainville approaches an independence referendum, won through hardship and sacrifice, its precious public finances are being lost to misappropriation,...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Was the PNGDF Scammed out of K15.4m?
This is the second instalment of PNGi’s coverage of the Manu Manu scandal report (see Part I here). Produced by an Administrative Inquiry under the Chairmanship of John Griffin QC, it was recently leaked to the public. Today we scrutinise a highly irregular Port Moresby land deal, which placed a number of high profile individuals under the inquiry spotlight. This...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Oro in the Auditor General’s spotlight
In its latest report, the Auditor General’s Office (AGO) has exposed a litany of questionable payments made by the Oro (Northern Province) Administration. The payments amount to almost K6 million in total. As well as specific payments that could not be verified as genuine the AGO found generally internal controls were insufficient to ‘prevent, detect or correct fraud’. [p164]. Oro’s...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
William Duma and the Manu Manu Land Scandal: The Full Story
The Manu Manu land scandal rocked the nation back in 2017. In response to the public outcry an Administrative Inquiry was launched at a cost of K2 million to taxpayers. While the inquiry report was tabled in Parliament on 13 April 2018, the public were denied copies of a report which they had paid for. Then, a month ago, it...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Car hire a major drain on government resources
At PNGi we are not just interested in exposing cases of corruption. We want to analyse and understand the systems and mechanisms that are used to unlawfully drain the public purse and to identify practical solutions that can help fix the problems. One subject that constantly reappears in our investigations is the hiring of cars by government institutions. In October...
THE COURT REPORT
Logging company sends police to terrorise village leader
In the afternoon of 13 February 2016, Flora Lakoya, her daughter, Paskaline, and grandchildren were confronted outside their rural home by a small group of armed men. Flora feared the gang were criminals. She told her daughter to run for cover in the plantation next to the house while she bravely picked up a spade. In fact, the men were...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
The ONeill-ADB Scandal Unredacted
Wild Cat Developments Limited is at the centre of a scandal leading to the Prime Minister’s office. Now read the full report that links the firm to a rigged K80 million tender. Last week PNGi, in collaboration with The Guardian, exposed explosive details from an ADB Office of Anti-Corruption and Integrity inquiry. Now you can read the the full Asian...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
An Emergency on New Ireland
There is an emergency on New Ireland. It is of a very peculiar nature. The emergency must be remedied ASAP, through: The supply of 5,000 solar MHZ-2000 Lanterns; and The upgrading and sealing of Lanzarotte Highway from Punam to Manmo Well, so claims the New Ireland Provincial Supply and Tender Board. According to the Auditor General’s Office (AGO) the Board...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
ONeill Bridge Deal Hits Audit Iceberg
As foreign diplomats are about to get shuttled across Port Moresby in Bentleys and Maseratis, PNGi and The Guardian have published explosive new evidence detailing how the Prime Minister won the ‘Maserati’ of public tenders through his company Wild Cat Developments, in highly irregular circumstances. The scandal centres on a K85 million bridge building contract for West New Britain funded...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
PNG most corrupt country in APEC
Papua New Guinea is the most corrupt country in APEC. This is according to data published by Transparency International (TI). Analysis of the TI Corruption Perceptions Index for the past five-years, 2013-17, shows PNG in last place among the twenty ranked APEC countries. PNG’s average score is just 26.6 out of 100. This places it two points below Russia, in...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
The Manumanu Cover Up
Back in 2017 the public paid for an administrative inquiry into the Manumanu land scandal which centred on two Ministers, William Duma and Dr Fabian Pok. Over the weekend after a painfully long wait the Manumanu Administrative Inquiry report was uploaded online by a good Samaritan. PNGi has a blow by blow reaction to the report penned by one of...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
IRC to clampdown on Mano-style tax evasion
The Internal Revenue Commission is cracking down on tax evasion by senior executives who divert their salary payments through ‘associated or related’ companies in order to avoid paying taxes. According to the IRC, such arrangements are “prevalent in many industries operating in the country”. IRC Public Notice published on 31 October 2018 PNGi first alerted its readers to the existence...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
The Jimmy Maladina Scandal You Didnt See!
Jimmy Maladina is one of the country’s most influential figures. He is said to be the Prime Minister’s ‘Chief Adviser’, and stands over a vast business empire. Maladina was also at the centre of one of the country’s most epic scandals forensically documented by the Commission of Inquiry into the National Provident Fund (NPF). A pre-sentence report cited in a...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
APEC Maseratigate In Numbers
The national government has acquired a fleet of over 800 new vehicles for the APEC Summit it is hosting next month. Meanwhile public anger grows over lavish spending on foreign dignitaries while local children go without adequate healthcare. PNGi has collated data on vehicle expenditure in a series of graphs so the public can see Maseratigate in its full complexity....
THE TOKAUT BLOG
ONeill Government Ban Rocks Film Festival
Over the weekend, the National Government banned a documentary film, The Opposition, from screening at the PNG Human Rights Film Festival. The film scrutinises a major Port Moresby property deal linked to the Works Minister, Michael Nali, the State Enterprises Minister, William Duma, and controversial Icelandic businessman Gudmundur Fridriksson. As the O’Neill government increasingly cracks down on dissent, Professor Kristian...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Facts trump government spin in Maserati furore
A storm of public criticism and protest has erupted after the publication of photographs showing the delivery of 40 Maserati luxury supercars to the O’Neill government. The white-jacked Maserati Quattroporte cars were shown being off-loaded from two chartered Boeing 747 aircraft at Port Moresby’s Jackson’s airport. The luxury cars have been brought to Port Moresby to chauffeur world leaders and...