Transcript
In the wake of the Singapore case, Sir Michael Somare has apologised for the shame caused to his country. However in a statement he said that at no time in his political career had he received inducements or bribes. The chairman of PNG's anti-corruption agency Taskforce Sweep Sam Koim says his team had been working with Singaporean authorities on the case. He says the Singapore court system has sent a clear message that it won't tolerate movement of illicit funds through its financial system.
SAM KOIM: They didn't wait for PNG as the victim country or Exxim Bank or whoever for that matter to lodge a complaint. They detected a suspicious transaction through their money-laundering regime that they have, and proceeded to investigate the case, and that's how it has ended up where it has.
He said co-operation from other jurisdictions where proceeds of fraud in PNG are transferred to is critical to successful prosecution of corruption. Mr Koim hopes Australia will follow Singapore's suit, since a lot of PNG's white collar criminals tend to buy property or hold their money in Australia.
SAM KOIM: I believe there are many. It's up to Australia to have the political will to actually take a step like what Singapore did. But as for the political will, I'm yet to see one that will push them to actually do something about it.
Sam Koim says the conclusion of the Singapore case will assist his team in finalising its own line of investigations on this matter. Yet this has been a problem area of recent times since PNG's police fraud squad began pursuing the arrest of the current prime minister Peter O'Neill over his role in alleged illegal state payments to a law firm. The warrant was stayed by the courts and subsequently, the police hierarchy directed the fraud squad to present all high-profile cases to a vetting committee before arrests can be made. The head of the fraud squad, Mathew Damaru, admits it's created an obstacle.
MATHEW DAMARU: It's kind of put a stop to our investigations, because we deal mostly with high profile people and investigations. The vetting and all this, it's not really helping us.
Sir Michael Somare's former deputy prime minster Sam Abal, now out of politics, admits that corruption is a recurring problem for the country.
SAM ABAL: The institutions are there to battle it. The thing that we have to do continuously is to strengthen our institutions. So institutions are run by people anyway so choose the right people and then they've got a commitment to running those institutions for the countries at different stage of development.
So it's very important, what they do.
Meanwhile, Sir Michael said he would seek clarification regarding the Singapore case and consult with his legal counsel about how to address the matter.
