Papua New Guinea's government has been accused of watering down the powers of an Independent Commission Against Corruption, or ICAC.
After his recent re-election, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill appears to finally be advancing his long-running promise to introduce ICAC legislation.
However the anti-corruption NGO Act Now says amendments to the legislation announced by the Justice Minister would undermine the independence of the ICAC.
Act Now's Eddie Tanago spoke with Johnny Blades.
Papua New Guinea.
Photo: RNZI
Transcript
EDDIE TANAGO: What actually happened was that the draft legislation was amended and some of the most critical elements, especially the prosecution and the ICAC powers were taken away and it was announced by the minister yesterday. What the government has removed the ICAC and it had removed its powers to arrest and prosecute and that has placed the Prime Minister in the appointment process.
JOHNNY BLADES: You're worried that will open the way for political interference I suppose?
ET: Exactly. So what we're really concerned about is that the Prime Minister having political influence in the appoint process will put in a position where politics will always be involved.
JB: Who is involved in drafting up these amendments? Is it a cross-party sort of committee in the parliament?
ET: It's the government department.
JB: And when did they do it? Was this before the election?
ET: As far as I know it was done quite a while back. As soon as it was tabled in parliament it took a while.
JB: When will the new amendments be brought into the draft?
ET: Just this year... So we called on the government to come up with the office of ICAC in the first 100 days we set up a petition that was running and so far we have so far collected more than 2000 signatures in the form of petition and for the government to do something like this is frustrating. It should be able to operate independently and make sure that those who are guilty of corruption are punished. I think it'll be dependent on the police and the public prosecutor too.
JB: And is that a bad thing?
ET: Yes. you’ve seen it in anti-corruption bodies where more investigations have been done and been referred to the police for arrest and prosecution or the public prosecutor's office... but these offices and these offices are under resourced and not subject to political interference. So what we are seeing in ICAC is a system that is failing already. So what we're calling on the government for is the power of arrest and prosecution to ICAC itself.
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
