8 Nov 2005

PNG professor suggests the country look to Singapore if it wants to tackle corruption

9:27 pm on 8 November 2005

A professor of political science at the university of Papua New Guinea says the country should try and emulate Singapore if it wants to tackle corruption once and for all.

Dr Allan Patience says PNG should adopt similar anti-corruption laws to Singapore.

The professor recommends a minimum 10 year prison sentence for any leader found guilty of corruption, state seizure of all their assets and a lifetime ban on them having a public role.

He says PNG could learn a lot from Singapore.

"At the moment of its independence, Singapore was a very poor third-world society. A very small resource-less island, population of not much less than Papua New Guinea today and now it's one of the richest societies in the world. In part, it happened because of very good governance, very scrupulous governance and very tough laws relating to corruption."

Dr Allan Patience from the University of PNG.

The latest Transparency International report had PNG dropping 28 places to 130 on a corruption list with number one being least corrupt.