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THE TOKAUT BLOG
Djoko Tjandra Arrested in Malaysia, the Fugitive PNG Politicians Protected
In dramatic scenes, after 11 years on the run, Indonesian fugitive Djoko Tjandra (also known as Joe Chan) has finally been arrested in Malaysia and returned back to Indonesia where he is to serve a prison sentence. Tjandra was convicted by the Supreme Court of Indonesia in June 2009 for corruption and sentenced to two years prison. Tjandra was also...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Key facts behind mysterious plane crash
Update 30/7/20: News reports state the pilot of the crashed Cessna light aircraft is David John Cutmore. Media reports from 1995 state that an individual with the same name was jailed in New Zealand for bird smuggling. He was dubbed the ‘bumbling birdman’ after ‘he was in a rented light plane close to Lord Howe Island on a hair-raising trip...
THE COURT REPORT
Illegal Car Hire Agreement Almost Fleeced Taxpayers of K1 million
The Madang Provincial Government and Madang business person Catherine Kila, have been hit with a withering judgement delivered by Justice Canning over an illegal car hire agreement, that almost cost the taxpayer K1 million. According to Canning J’s judgement the contract was signed on 1 December 2013 by Rama Marisan, the Deputy Governor of Madang Province. The other party to...
THE COURT REPORT
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...
THE COURT REPORT
Fraudulent land titles continue to rot the nation
In the words of one land expert Papua New Guinea is full of ‘bull**** titles’. Systemic corruption in the Lands Department means it is virtually impossible anymore to know whether land titles are authentic, or fraudulent, free of corruption, or riddled with corruption. To use an analogy, what kind of food market could operate, when half the products are laced...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Have govt Ministers been lured into another expensive scam?
Papua New Guinea has witnessed its fair share of white elephant public-private partnerships. They promise the earth, but deliver little while draining scarce public resources. Durand Farm, Central City, the Waigani Office Precinct, Gabutu Palace, the Konebada Petroleum Park, the Porporena Freeway, the ITE trust and many others… The Eastern Highlands Agriculture Project could be the latest to join the...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Farmers Swindled out of K2 Million by Dept Secretaries
On paper former Departmental Secretary, Valentine Kambori, has an impressive resume. Most recently he has been appointed by the Marape Government to lead on its National Agriculture Sector Plan. Kambori is also a senior adviser to the Department of Agriculture and Livestock. Agriculture Minister John Simon has selected Kambori to help fast-track a K2 billion integrated agricultural industrial park project...
THE COURT REPORT
Illicit K10.6m payment
Today’s PNGi Court Report exposes K10.6 million in illegal payments which the PNG Forest Authority attempted to make to Asaule Development Corporation Limited. The National Court has concluded that these were payments which the state was in no way obliged to make, and they were unlawful. This is just the latest example in a pattern of behaviour from the Forest...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Whistleblower law completely unfit for purpose
Whistleblowers can play an essential role in exposing corruption, fraud and mismanagement. But they often do so at great personal risk. Therefore, comprehensive legal protections are a vital part of any anti-corruption framework. The government has acknowledged the dangers faced by whistleblowers in Papua New Guinea and enacted the nation’s first-ever whistleblower protection law. Unfortunately, the Act completely fails in...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Pruaitch Tribunal Unlikely to Deliver Justice for the People
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Patrick Pruaitch, maybe one step closer to finally answering to allegations of misconduct in office after the Chief Justice announced the appointment of a new Leadership Tribunal. Pruaitch will not formally be suspended from office though until the Public Prosecutor is able to formally present the allegations to the Tribunal. Those allegations date back to Pruaitch’s...
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...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
COVID-19 Expenditure: Reporting the Red Flags
PNGi has conducted a preliminary analysis of suppliers selected by the Department of Health to help combat the COVID-19 epidemic. Today we present a shortlist of the companies exhibiting red flags that deserve close audit scrutiny. COVID-19 is a global emergency. In the event of an emergency procurement processes, which ordinarily require public tender and transparent selection processes, are dispensed...
THE COURT REPORT
National Judicial Staff Services Sack Whistleblower
Corruption investigations most often focus on high-profile leaders and their involvement in multi-million kina scams. The enormous sums of money involved and the life-styles of our elites can make their crimes hard to relate to, especially for ordinary people working hard to just feed their families and keep their kids in school. Corruption though can be found at every level...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
Stunning Claim Jimmy Maladina Administered K42m Extortion Scheme
Today PNGi documents stunning allegations that Jimmy Maladina – a man described as ‘Chief Adviser’ to the then Prime Minister Peter O’Neill – in 2015 used serious threats to force China Railway Construction Engineering into signing a ‘referral agreement’. Under the agreement Maladina’s company, Flavalea Limited, would get a 10% cut of any contract he ‘secured’ for China Railway. Maladina...
THE COURT REPORT
Compensation but no criminal charges for fraudulent lease
A company owned and controlled by an Australian businessman ‘secured a fraudulent title’ to a plot of land which he then sold or leased to a second company owned by two South Koreans who invited a third company onto the land to use it during the construction of a four-storey building on an adjacent plot. The rightful owners of the...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
AGO Slams Public Body CEOs
A nation’s health and prosperity depends on its most senior public servants. Departmental Secretaries and other public body chief executives are variously entrusted with delivering essential services, regulating the economy, generating revenues or ensuring the rule of law. But, according to the Auditor General (AG), in Papua New Guinea this group of leaders are critically underperforming when it comes to...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
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...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
COVID-19 Spending Allegations Demand Further Investigation
Anti-corruption bodies around the world are facing probably their biggest ever challenge in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic While governments are spending huge amounts to fight the virus, and even more staggering amounts to bail-out businesses, the controls on that expenditure have rarely been as relaxed. Yet the fight against corruption has never been more important as every toea...
THE TOKAUT BLOG
Luxury Brisbane home adds new layer to Horizon Oil bribery scandal
In February the Australian Financial Review (AFR) broke the story of a bribery scandal surrounding the current Minister for Commerce and Trade, William Duma. It is alleged that in 2011 the Australian listed Horizon Oil paid a US$10.3m bribe to a Papua New Guinean shell company with ties to the Minister in order to get an oil exploration licence renewed....
PNGi INVESTIGATES
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...
THE COURT REPORT
Rimbunan Hijau ordered to pay up – again!
Papua New Guinea’s largest logging company, the Malaysian owned Rimbunan Hijau, has been ordered by the courts to pay K4.8 million plus interest and costs to customary landowners in Gulf Province. This is the latest in a series of court decisions damning the behaviour of the logging company. See also: RIMBUNAN HIJAU BEHAVIOUR “A SHAM, FRAUD AND UNCONSCIONABLE” RIMBUNAN HIJAU...
PNGi INVESTIGATES
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...
THE COURT REPORT
Fund Manager Mark Sakai Masterminded K10m Fraud
It is a common enough story. A son or a daughter of a resource rich region leaves for the city and further education. They then become established in the world of business, learning the ropes of corporate management, business administration, finance, and law. But rather than using this knowledge to defend their community from exploitation, they become the exploiter. What...
THE COURT REPORT
Rimbunan Hijau behaviour “a sham, fraud and unconscionable”
The Supreme Court has delivered another damning indictment on the behaviour of one of Papua New Guinea’s largest private companies, Rimbunan Hijau Limited (RH). Over the last 30 years this Malaysian owned company has built a multi-sector empire with interests in retail, property, transport, media, and hospitality. Recent court decisions though have exposed how this empire has its foundations in...