Transcript
The Manumanu Land Deal involved acquisition of land in Central Province for a naval base. The Minister for Defence Fabian Pok and Minister for State Enterprises William Duma were alleged to have conspired over the acquisition of the land prior to the sale. It emerged that the state paid a company closely linked with Mr Duma $US14million to purchase the land. Transparency International's Lawrence Stephens says the deal was suspicious.
LAWRENCE STEPHENS: We have land in Central Province, a government lease, that was acquired by a company connected to ministers, connected to public officials and people from another region of Papua New Guinea, certainly not from Central Province. And the land is compulsorily acquired by the state. The very state that just gave the company the land now acquires that land from the company for a payment of something in the order of 43 million kina. even the prime minister appeared to have been horrified by that deal, at least publicly.
Back in March, the deal was questioned in Parliament, resulting in Mr O'Neill standingdown the ministers, and announcing a Commission of Inquiry. But Mr Stephens says it's another promise that wasn't fulfilled. He hopes law enforcement officers will investigate. However the head of the police anti-fraud squad Matthew Damaru, says he has effectively been restricted from pursuing high profile fraud cases, after the Police Commissioner Gary Baki created a so-called vetting committee.
GARY BAKI: We (the fraud squad) are practically suppressed. We can't do anything. It only made our work more difficult. And I am not sure whether a vetting committee, whether it exists. Because we've got a number of cases and we've never got any response.
PNG has now had its general election and, as of this month, a new parliament is in place. Peter O'Neill needed the support of Mr Duma and Mr Pok's United Resources Party to form his coalition government. They've both been appointed to powerful ministerial portfolios, despite the Manumanu deal not being resolved. Transparency this week paid for newspaper advertisements urging Mr O'Neill to make good on his promise for the inquiry, and to stand Mr Duma down again. The editor of the Post Courier, Todagia Kelola initially knocked back Transparency's submitted ad, because he says it read as if Mr Duma had been found guilty, when that is not the case.
TODAGIA KELOLA: They amended it and it ran in today's paper on page 6. The advert stated 'ensure that the Manumanu land deal is fully investigated, keep your promise PM and follow the leadership code'. The entire ad ran except for 'revoke Duma until Manumanu land deal is fully investigated'. I took it off to protect the paper.
Lawrence Stephens says increasingly PNG media and social media practitioners find themselves under pressure as soon as they draw attention to anything hinting at dishonesty in public office.
