31 Jul 2017

Call for PNG MPs to set up anti-corruption commission

From , 5:04 am on 31 July 2017

This story has been corrected.

An advocacy group in Papua New Guinea has launched a petition calling on newly elected MPs to establish an Independent Commission Against Corruption within 100 days of taking office.

A bill to set up the commission was tabled by the PNG government in 2015 but it was never enacted.

The group, Act Now, says a well resourced, permanent and politically independent Commission Against Corruption, or ICAC, is desperately needed.

PNG is ranked in the bottom 20 percent of all countries for corruption by Transparency International.

Act Now's Eddie Tanago told Ben Robinson Drawbridge the embezzlement of public funds by civil servants in PNG causes unnecessary deaths and hardship.

Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea. Photo: RNZI