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Pacific News Minute: PNG Fraud and Anti-Corruption Squad closes in on Prime Minister

pixabay/Creative Commons
pixabay/Creative Commons

In Papua New Guinea, the Justice minister, a Supreme Court justice and the Prime Minister's lawyer have been arrested in a long running anti-corruption investigation that locals call “Paraka-gate”.  The Prime Minister himself has avoided arrest, at least so far, but, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute, the noose appears to be closing.

The charges date back six years, when then-Finance Minister Peter O'Neill signed a letter authorizing the payment of about $30-million dollars to a PNG law firm headed by Paul Paraka.  After an investigation showed that the payment was fraudulent, O'Neill proclaimed the letter a forgery, the first in a long series of sidesteps, technicalities and maneuvers to delay, block and intimidate investigators. 

Following his elevation to Prime Minister, O'Neill replaced the attorney general, fired the police commissioner and dismantled the police Fraud and anti-corruption unit.  But since then, the replacement attorney general has been charged with perverting the course of justice.  The replacement police commissioner is serving three years for obstructing the Prime Minister's arrest, and the Supreme Court reinstated the Fraud squad.

The arrests this week include the attorney General, Ano Pala, which also serves as Justice Minister, Tiffany Twivey, the prime minister's attorney, and Supreme Court Justice Bernard Sakora.  While allegations of corruption for government officials are nothing new in PNG, judges there enjoy a reputation for integrity, so allegations against a Supreme Court Justice came as a shock. 

Prime Minister O'Neill denies all charges. "We all know who are the real beneficiaries of the Paraka transactions," he said mysteriously last month, "and only time will tell when these identities will be revealed."

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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