PNG Govt to table anti-corruption bill

12:55 pm on 18 April 2019

A bill to establish an Independent Commission Against Corruption in Papua New Guinea will be tabled in Parliament next month, the Justice Minister says.

PNG parliament

PNG parliament Photo: AFP

Davis Steven told the newspaper the National that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill wanted the bill introduced in the House in next month's sitting.

Mr Steven said the prime minister prioritised the bill after the 2012 election but officials lost track of it.

After losing its way within the bureaucracy, the bill is now being prepared by the officials to be tabled in May, he said.

In 2014, parliament amended the constitution to enable the ICAC to be established.

The following year, the government introduced the ICAC Organic Law Bill which was referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Laws but never progressed.

At the time, the NGO Act Now criticised the bill which it said would create a commission that was toothless and open to political interference.

Act Now said the bill removed powers of arrest and prosecution proposed in earlier versions, and put the prime minister in charge of appointing the commissioners.

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