PNG MP not shocked by fraud squad cuts

8:58 am on 10 January 2019

Papua New Guinea opposition MP, Kerenga Kua, says the country's fraud squad will not be properly funded until Peter O'Neill is removed as prime minister.

His comment comes amid revelations that, in the latest Budget, the squad got half the level of funding given to the police band.

Kerenga Kua

Kerenga Kua Photo: Loop PNG

This continues a series of annual declines stretching back several years and follows efforts by the fraud squad to arrest Mr O'Neill - charges that have since been dismissed.

Mr Kua said since Mr O'Neill came to power he had interfered with police funding.

"That's one of the many things that he has been doing over the years to only perform in the direction that he does want to see them perform in, not in any areas he doesn't want them to function," he said.

"So depriving them of financial support is a very important way of making sure that the fraud squad listen to what he wants them to and does what he wants them to."

The opposition in PNG is planning to bring a vote on no confidence in Mr O'Neill but Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel said the government was not fazed by this and had the support to defeat it.