The former director-general of Papua New Guinea's National Library and Archives has been arrested and charged with misusing state funds.
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
Jacob Hevelawa is alleged to have misappropriated of US$38,000 by awarding a contract for grass cutting, landscaping and rubbish removal to a company which his wife is a director of.
Miriam Hevelawa has also been charged.
The Post Courier reports the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate saying these are the beginning of many more arrests to be made, stemming from a complaint lodged by the Department of Education and the National Library and Archives Services.
The Directorate says two teams of detectives are conducting the investigations into misappropriations of funds in millions of kina in which officers from the department were colluding with contractors.
It says there are instances where contractors were paid for doing nothing, or contractors completed the work but were never paid, or contractors were paid for work not completed.
