10 Mar 2005

New French Polynesian government to look into money transfers and GIP force

7:31 pm on 10 March 2005

The new French Polynesian government has held its first meeting and discussed recent transfers of large sums of public money into a Swiss bank as well as the status of the presidency's intervention group, the GIP.

The vice -president, Jacqui Drollet, says the government wants to establish how much money and under what circumstances the post office administration has placed with a Swiss bank.

The board chairman of the post office has been dismissed but he has said there was nothing untoward in the transfer which had been approved by the previous government.

The head of the GIP, Leonard Puputauki, has been replaced by Robert Maker who is to clarify how many members the GIP has.

Mr Maker is also to establish what their status and function is.

The GIP was set up by the previous president, Gaston Flosse, and has been deployed to help with disaster assistance and public security.

It has also run an intelligence service which has been implicated in the disappearance of a journalist.