Big health donors defraud patients by ignoring corruption

Papua New Guinea’s health system is in crisis. Tuberculosis is at epidemic levels, polio has re-emerged, maternal and child mortality rates are among the worst in the world, malaria infections have increased nine-fold in just three years, no radiology treatment is available for cancer patients, rural health clinics lie empty and abandoned… the list goes on and on. Yet this...

Polio victims the casualties of untreated corruption

How does Polio remerge in a country like Papua New Guinea? One word – corruption. In today’s Tokaut Blog we show in granular detail how scamsters are looting our health system and the direct toll it has taken on immunisation programs essential to the life of our children. — Twelve children across Papua New Guinea have been diagnosed with the...

Pruaitch abuses legal process to derail justice

Update: 11 June 2020 MP and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Patrick Pruaitch, suspended from office as the Chief Justice announces the appointment of a new Leadership Tribunal to hear the complaints of misconduct in office that date back to 2006 and before. Update: 6 December 2019 A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court has rejected Patrick Pruaitch’s latest appeal. Pruaitch...

The K2.65 million question: Jimmy Maladina and Meck Luo

In 2015 Jimmy Maladina was staring down the barrel of 8 years in prison for his role in the National Provident Fund scandal. Enter Haozhong ‘Meck’ Luo. Court documents reveal Luo paid the State K2.65 million in restitution on Jimmy Maladina’s behalf, through the company Isles Builders and Contractors. When he is not playing guardian angel, Mr Luo heads China...

Govt to cede sovereignty in cryptocurrency gamble

One of the most consistent and wide-ranging criticisms levelled at the O’Neill government is its poor economic management. As the country’s economic vital signs get weaker, the O’Neill government appears to be getting more desperate. A recent report that the national government is seeking once again to convince global money markets to take up a $500 million bond offering has...

AGO: Australian Rorts K13 million from Defence Budget

Sometimes when investigating one scandal PNGi trips over another. That happened during the case of Fabian Pok. As we dug into the financial belly of Defence, a rort exposed by the Auditor General was uncovered. At its centre is Australian national, Anubhav Yadav, and his shelf company Makro Limited. The scenario in brief. The Central Supply and Tender Board (CSTB)...

Fabian Pok: Leadership Tribunal Material

This man should not be in charge of the nation’s petroleum and energy wealth. That is the only conclusion a reasonable person could draw after a careful consideration of Dr Fabian Pok’s political career to date. Too strong a words? You decide. Dr Pok has been: Condemned by the Commission of Inquiry into the National Provident Fund. Based off an...

Global Fund program infected by health sector corruption

PNGi has published a number of reports on the endemic corruption and mismanagement in Papua New Guinea’s health sector, a problem which continues to be ignored by the government. Now we can reveal how a major international agency, Population Services International (PSI), became infected with the same disease in its PNG operations. Unlike the PNG government though, which is refusing...

Chris Haiveta: A Slippery Fish?

UPDATE: A new endnote was added to this report on 20 October 2020. Sandline International – a British mercenary firm – planned to use heat seeking missiles and other heavy-duty armaments on Bougainville. It would almost certainly have been a bloodbath, with major civilian casualties. So a mine could be reopened. Only unprecedented social mobilisation by the people, and a...

Petition to establish a Leadership Tribunal for Michael Nali

PNGi has recently concluded a three-part profile of veteran MP and Minister for Works, Michael Nali. The investigation has revealed that there are outstanding charges of misappropriation against Mr. Nali, relating to two separate sums of public money, K50,000 and K460,000. Mr. Nali was originally found guilty on both counts by a Leadership Tribunal, but those verdicts were overturned on...

Political Donations and Misappropriation

In this Court Report PNGi reveals how one convicted criminal purchased the right to misappropriate K500,000 by making a K50,000 donation to the conspiring Minister’s political party. It is not enough to expose individual cases of corruption. We must understand how corruption works as a system, so the system can be disrupted and destroyed. To do that cases are indeed...

Michael Nali Part 3: Climbing the Great Wall

This is the final instalment in a three-part profile of Michael Nali, the current Minister for Works and Implementation. Here we look at his unique private and public relationship with a Chinese state corporation implicated in a wide range of corruption and bribery scandals. Nali was first elected to parliament in 1992. He is now in his fourth term as...

Michael Nali Part 2: Friends, Allies and Business

This is the second of three reports profiling one of Papua New Guinea’s longest serving politicians and businessmen, Michael Nali. Nali is currently the Minister for Works and Implementation in the government of Peter O’Neill. In Part 1, PNGi highlighted the conflict of interest surrounding Michael Nali’s involvement in the controversial Paga Hill real estate development in Port Moresby. It...

Michael Nali Part 1: A Bad Penny Returns?

In May we brought you five days of Yama. Now we turn the investigative spotlight onto another of Papua New Guinea’s most enduring and controversial politicians, Michael Nali. In a three-part profile we look back at a 25 year career and expose some startling new facts. – – – – – – – – – – Michael Nali is one...

Border Development Authority: Dont let the rats flee this sinking ship

Petition to Prevent Logging on Woodlark Island and Investigate Possible Criminal Acts

PNGi has recently concluded a four-part exposé on an application to clear 30,000 hectares of forest on Woodlark Island under the guise of an agriculture and tree planting project. The investigation has revealed numerous serious falsehoods, legal failures, inconsistencies and misinformation in the logging application. Falling a call to the public, PNGi collected 193 signatures calling on the Managing Director...

Woodlark Island Logging Scam Part 4: Large-scale Fraud?

In February this year, Kulawood Limited submitted an application to clear 30,000 hectares of forest on Woodlark (Muyua) Island. It is the latest in a line of foreign companies that have tried to exploit this valuable resource. During 2008 plans to clear 70% of the island for oil palm were cancelled after protests and petitions. In 2014 a logging company,...

Woodlark Island Logging Scam Part 3: Kulawood Limited

The national government is being asked to approve the clearance of 30,000 hectares of forest on Woodlark Island under the guise of an agriculture project. The island’s forests include stands of the highly prized ebony tree and the proposed logging permit boundaries enclose the whole island. A close examination of the project proposal reveals it is riddled with errors, inconsistencies...

Woodlark Island Logging Scam Part 2: DAL Approval

A foreign owned company, Kulawood Limited, has applied for a permit to clear 30,000 hectares of forest on Woodlark (Muyua) Island under the guise of an agriculture and tree planting project. PNGi has conducted an investigation into the project documentation, approval process and the companies involved and found the logging permit application to be riddled with errors, inconsistencies and falsehoods....

Woodlark Island Logging Scam Part 1: Ebony Woods

A foreign owned company, Kulawood Limited, has applied for a permit to clear 30,000 hectares of forest on Woodlark (Muyua) Island under the guise of an agriculture and tree planting project. The company says logging will be followed by the establishment of tree, rubber and cocoa plantations. However, many of its claims about the project do not stand up to...

Communication tower mystery poses serious questions

PNGi usually likes to focus on providing the answers; investigating, analysing and then exposing who did what, where and when and why it was wrong. However, sometimes we come across mere glimpses or shadows that we cannot, because of the information vacuum that so often exists in Papua New Guinea, use to construct a clear picture of wrongdoing but which...

PNGSDP/Cloudy Bay Scandal Blown Wide Open

On 23 April Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) – a not-for-profit entity set up in 2002 to manage revenues from the Ok Tedi mine – issued a press release. It contained stunning allegations relating to its former subsidiary, Cloudy Bay Sustainable Forestry Ltd. Purchased in 2007 from the Constantinou Group, Cloudy Bay held a timber permit over 149,000...

Can the ADB solve the corruption crippling PNG’s health system?

The Asian Development Bank says it will assist Papua New Guinea address the systemic failings in its health system through a new $195 million program, but can this externally driven project successfully address the chronic problems of corruption and mismanagement in the sector? Over the last ten months PNGi has repeatedly exposed the the systemic problems in the procurement and...

The Yama Files Part V: The Tale of 10 Supreme Court Judges