PNG anti-corruption officer sees light at the end of the tunnel
A leading Papua New Guinea anti-corruption officer says he has faith in the judiciary to be able to rule fairly on myriad cases before the courts related to a major fraud case.
Transcript
A leading Papua New Guinea anti-corruption officer says he has faith in the judiciary to be able to rule fairly on myriad cases before the courts related to a major fraud case.
PNG's police fraud squad has been probing the prime minister Peter O'Neill's role in allegedly illegal state payments worth around 30 million US dollars in legal bills to a law firm, Paraka Lawyers.
Photo: Supplied
The police fraud squad has sought to arrest Mr O'Neill over the case since 2014 however this has been delayed by a series of legal challenges to the validity of the arrest warrant and the investigation.
The squad's probe stemmed from investigations by the anti-corruption unit Taskforce Sweep into misdealings with PNG's Finance Department.
Despite numerous obstacles such as the prime minister trying to disband Taskforce Sweep, its head, Sam Koim, says that anti-fraud officers continue to do their job.
He told Johnny Blades that they have been exercising restraint on publicising the substance of alleged fraud cases.
SAM KOIM: Those cases havent been brought to the court yet and we don't want to prejudice those cases by arguing or conducting a media trial. That's why we are preserving those arguments, we are preserving the evidence, so that once the cases are brought to the court, it is up to the court to determine whether there is a case or otherwise.
JOHNNY BLADES: What has happened to Paul Paraka in all this, because he was of course the subject of a lot of the investigations?
SK: Paul Paraka is having his time in court. he was charged with many counts of misappropriation, money laundering and other criminal charges. He hasn't been convicted yet because his lawyers are filing all manner of applications to frustrate the committee process. So he's having his time in court.
JB: Because some of the sounds we're hearing from people around the prime minister over this whole series of legal cases is that he shouldn't be questioned at all until Paraka, who they call the "main suspect" in all these things, is found guilty, and they say that hasn't happened yet. Is that reasonable to you?
SK: I've been hearing that. But that argument does not have sound legal basis. Paraka and other co-conspirators have to be prosecuted together.
JB: This whole thing goes back years, doesn't it, all these misdealings in the Finance Department, it's quite extensive, isn't it?
SK: We charged Paraka and other people, including a couple of private lawyers, for offences that were committed prior to 2012, which is prior to this 71.8 million kina allegation. So we have already taken actions on that one as well. Those cases are still in court.
JB: Is this normal that it takes so long?
SK: Lawyers in Papua New Guinea have become, if you like, ingenious in devising all manner of applications and putting roadblocks after roadbloacks in between the process, and they are frustrating it. So that's really the delay in the process.
JB: We have senior police figures telling us repeatedly that this fraud squad is out of control, erratic, being funded funded or resourced from outside the normal channels, and that they need to be the subject of an internal (police) inquiry. What do you think of these claims?
SK: Firstly, the terms of the inquiry impinge no matters that are already in court. And the courts have indicated - one or a number of judges have actually indicated - that you cannot conduct a parallel inquiry when the very issues are before the court. And secondly, with the respect to the allegations of some funding coming from somewhere, those are the allegations and most of them, those allegations, been raised in court, I would rather allow them to address that in court and they can provide the evidence to that effect. Now with respect to reporting lines, Chief Superintendent Matthew Damaru, who is the head of the national fraud squad, has always been reporting to the police commissioner through the assistant commissioner crimes. There seems to be some breakdown of chain of command between the fraud squad and the commissioner's office so that's where it is. And that's where the commissioner should be looking at, instead of trying to come down and shut the whole entire fraud squad.
JB: Do you have faith that the country's court system can handle all these matters in a fair way?
SK: Well, I do, I do. And the judiciary is independent. That's one of the good things about our country and how the constitutional frameworks have been put in place, that the judicial independence is further entrenched by the constitution and no person outside of the judicial system has control or direction or interference into the judiciary.
JB: Where do you see all this stuff heading around the Paraka case? Is it nearing some sort of an outcome or this could drag on for a while?
SK: We are hoping for all these to fizzle out in the near future. At some stage it has to come to a close and allow the respective officers to do their jobs. As it is now, we've got all these matters still in court and it depends on both parties to progress it to a conclusion.
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