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THE COURT REPORT
Yama Bribery Scandal Takes Another Twist
Peter Yama is a businessman, serial litigator, and a political heavyweight, currently serving as Governor for Madang Province. Writing in The Australian, renowned PNG correspondent Rowan Callick describes Yama as the ‘policeman turned security godfather turned politician’ who appears ‘untouchable, capable of pulling strings in every quarter’. Callick writes colorfully about Yama’s past business exploits: Yama, thrives in the face...
POWER PROFILES
William Duma: From Manu Manu to Horizon Oil
Last week Commerce Minister William Duma appeared before the TV cameras indignant, after he was implicated by the Australian Financial Review (AFR) in a K34 million bribery scandal involving Horizon Oil. Following the AFR exposé, Horizon Oil suspended its CEO. Duma has remained in post and has gone on the offensive. Duma presents himself as the innocent victim of a...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
A Sweetheart Deal for Kinhill Kramer
Those who forget history are destined to repeat it. Abuse of office, graft, and corruption was a disease that gripped Waigani in the 1980s. By the 1990s it was taking over the whole body politic. Forestry was the most obvious example. But it went deeper. In today’s PNGi Investigates we study one of the great scandals of the 1990s, the...
THE COURT REPORT
Forest Authority abusing the law to defeat 1991 reforms
In 1989 the Barnett Commission of Inquiry passed damning judgement on the conduct of the logging industry and state of forest management in Papua New Guinea. Corruption, human rights abuses and unsustainable logging were rife. Foreign-owned logging companies were described by Justice Barnett as acting like robber barons: It would be fair to say… they are now roaming the countryside...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Horizon Oil and William Duma Bribery Scandal
Yesterday a scandal broke in the Australian Financial Review (AFR). It is alleged that the Australian listed firm, Horizon Oil, paid US$10.3 million to a Papua New Guinea shell company, with ties to the then Petroleum Minister, William Duma, a claim Duma denies. The scandal begins in 2010. Horizon Oil faced losing valuable gas licenses in PNG, after then Petroleum...
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...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Best of PNGi Central 2019: Your Most Read
Prominent businessmen, politicians and public servants all feature regularly in the investigative reports published by PNGi. It is perhaps unsurprising then that our review of the most read reports for 2019 features some of the very biggest names, including deposed Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, his controversial Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari, businessman, Jimmy ‘teflon’ Maladina and prominent Minister Puka Temu. Alongside...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Manus Security Contract Goes to Group Slammed by Deputy Chief Justice
Protests have erupted on Manus Island after the Tasion Group was awarded a contract to provide security at the controversial Australian refugee centre stationed on the island. The centre is in the process of being decommissioned. Local landowners have asked how could a business fronted and owned by a known fraudster win such a contract. Chief Migration Officer at the...
THE COURT REPORT
Rimbunan Hijau abuses court system to deny landowners justice
In today’s Court Report we add another chapter to a list of abuses that authorities say have been perpetrated by the notorious Malaysian owned logging company Rimbunan Hijau. The name Rimbunan Hijau (RH) is Malay for ‘ever green’, it is the largest logging company in Papua New Guinea. RH has been operating here since 1986. Over the years RH has...
THE COURT REPORT
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...
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...
THE COURT REPORT
Curtain Bros Litigation Deals Blow To Gummi Fridriksson and Paga Hill Estate
Commentators and academic experts have repeatedly sounded warning sirens over the proposed ‘K3 billion’ Port Moresby luxury property development dubbed “Paga Hill Estate”. It is spearheaded by flamboyant Icelandic-Australian businessman Gummi Fridriksson and the Paga Hill Development Company (PNG) Limited. They have good reason to be skeptical. Since the 1990s the founder and CEO of Paga Hill Development Company, ‘Gummi’...
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
Konebada Petroleum Park Authority too corrupt to fall?
The Konebada Petroleum Park Authority (KPPA) has been used as a cash cow by politicians, senior officials and their business partners, swindling the State of millions. The Authority has been unable though to keep all of its lavish spending, dodgy deals and mysterious corporate manoeuvres out of the public eye. A series of investigative reports, including a number published by...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Prime Minister Marape Aided Indonesian Fugitive Joko Tjandra
This headline is not fake news. It is the documented conclusion of the Ombudsman Commission. The report, tabled by the Ombudsman Commission back in 2017, received some news coverage at the time. But few of the explosive details contained in it were properly excavated (download the full report here). Internal government records published within the report reveal that top public...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Minister and Secretary Misled Govt Over K10 Billion Tower Deal
It is so often the case that investigations into abuse of power, public mismanagement and corruption only uncovers reprehensible behaviour by politicians and public servants. Every now and then though a ray of light breaks through the darkness. In October 2017 the Ombudsman Commission published the details of a major investigation into an improper and illegal decision by the national...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Why do we venerate the architects of kleptocracy
Papua New Guinea has been ruled by successive kleptocracies. This is a fact attested to by volumes of published research, the professional opinion of the country’s top corruption fighters, and a library of investigation findings produced by Commissions of Inquiry, official audits, and Court decisions. This mountain of documentary and oral records illustrate, without a trace of doubt, that PNG...
POWER PROFILES
The Treasurers Back Story Part II: A Showdown with Judge Brian Brunton
During his tenure at the National and Supreme Court, Justice Brian Brunton earned a reputation for his integrity, forensic analysis and lucid decisions. These qualities were on display when he confronted a company owned and managed by a man recently appointed the country’s new Treasurer, Ian Ling-Stuckey. The year was 1990, and the National Capital District Interim Commission (NCDIC) was...
POWER PROFILES
New Treasurer a Plague on Development and Democracy Top Civil Servant Claims
One thing can be said about PNG politics, failure, even on a monumental scale, is no barrier to high office. Further evidence for this now walks among us in the form of PM Marape’s new pick for Treasurer, Ian Ling-Stuckey, at least if we are to believe former Justice Secretary Dr Lawrence Kalinoe (Kalinoe sadly passed away in March this...
THE COURT REPORT
The Cloudy Bay Scandal Just Got Cloudier
In 2007 PNG Sustainable Development Fund (PNGSDP) used revenues from Ok Tedi to purchase the Cloudy Bay timber operation for K47 million. It then invested a further K300 million in what was to be a flagship demonstration of sustainable forest management. But in 2014, the project was abruptly sold for just K40 million. PNGSDP claims the sale was underpinned by...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Auditor General massively under funded
Money is leaking out of government institutions at an alarming rate. It has been estimated that as much as 50% of the government’s annual budget is stolen. Often the rorts are not complex or sophisticated. There are numerous examples of politicians and bureaucrats paying companies they or their families own for services that are never provided or which are billed...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
How to Bag a Million in New Ireland
While families across the country struggle to make ends meet, it appears for a small minority the path to millions is exceedingly easy, so claims the Ombudsman Commission (OC). The OC’s investigation into the award of K1 million to KPE Investment Ltd for the provision of agricultural services found that the Namatanai District Administration and the New Ireland Provincial Administration...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
KPPA and other stains on the new Marape government
New Prime Minister James Marape has loudly trumpeted his commitment to fight corruption and he has vowed an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will soon be established. But actions speak louder than words. After all, Peter O’Neill came to power making very similar promises. Indeed, the exact same commitment to establish an ICAC was the centrepiece of O’Neill’s rhetoric from...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
$13m Sydney Mansion Adds New Layers to UBS Loan Scandal
Revelations that former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s son is living in a $13 million waterfront home in Sydney’s most exclusive residential street adds new layers of intrigue to the UBS loan scandal. The house in Sydney is owned, but never used, by prominent businessman Theophilus Constantinou, according to the Australian Financial Review. The AFR describes Constantinou as one of Papua...