28 Sep 2002

PNG provincial administrators charged with contempt of parliament

9:27 am on 28 September 2002

Papua New Guinea's Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has charged four provincial administrators with contempt of parliament, after they failed to turn up for a hearing.

The administrators had been ordered by PPAC to appear after failing to supply the National government with financial accounts.

The hearings also follow inquiries into the provincial government's financial affairs after they failed to account for over 685-million US dollars in the past five years.

PPAC Chairman John Hickey, says the administrators have been given every opportunity to state their case, but have not done so, and therefore will face the consequences.

"My committee decided to ask them officially to show why they did not come to show cause why they should not be charged with contempt of Parliament. We also instructed departmental heads and the Secretary of Personnel Management and the Secretary for Inter-Governmental Relations to charge them under Sections relating to their departments."