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By BRIAN GOMEZ in Sydney
A RECENT paper by academic Dr Joseph Ketan for the Centre for Democratic
Institutions (CDI) has argued that misappropriation of “slush funds” by
parliamentarians have adversely impacted rural development.
He said the evidence showed that PNG parliamentarians had
misappropriated hundreds of millions of kina intended for projects in
their electorate.
“Various slush funds have been created and controlled by government
ministers to facilitate the systematic looting of development grants to
enrich themselves and to use in pork-barrel politics,” he said.
Dr Ketan’s 65-page paper was commissioned by CDI as part of a series
focusing on pressing issues of political governance in the Asia-Pacific.
It said Electoral Development Fund (EDF) was one of several “slush
funds” available to PNG parliamentarians.
“Critics argue that the EDF promotes corruption, nepotism and bad
governance, while supporters argue that the EDF is the only effective
mechanism for allocating development grants to remote parts of the
country,” Dr Ketan said.
Although he said “the truth probably lies somewhere in between”, his
paper said misappropriation of slush funds was “a manifestation of a
wider crisis of governance, where destructive political culture has
undermined the functions of state institutions”.
He said the combination of political tenure with wealth accumulation had
assumed new proportions recently, with officials from the Finance
Department and the Public Solicitors Office paying out billions of kina
in fraudulent out-of-court settlements in return for kickbacks.
“The ‘criminalisation’ of state institutions as exemplified by
corruption within a number of government departments (illegal sale of
passports and work permits, fraudulent payments and illegal contracts)
suggest that the state might be operating as a ‘kleptocracy’ (rule by
theft).
“Indeed in many parts of the country, it can be claimed that the State
has lost control of its Weberian claim to monopoly over the legitimate
use of force,” the report said.
Dr Ketan said politicians and bureaucrats were required to comply with
the Public Finance (Management) Act in disbursement of funds but his
study indicated that this law and the Office for Rural Development
guidelines and procedures had been breached for political expediency.
“In May 2007, for example, the Somare Government paid out K90 million in
EDF grants, in spite of an Ombudsman Commission directive that no
further payments are made until MPs account for previous allocations.
“Only 14 MPs had submitted their acquittals for 2006, while 95
parliamentarians had failed to account for K190 million allocated under
various programmes,” he said.
Dr Ketan said the study documented 41 cases of parliamentarians that had
been successfully prosecuted, among them 20 government ministers, seven
deputy prime ministers and nine governors with 35 convictions.
He said while this was a disturbing trend in a small country with a
Parliament of 109 seats, even more worrying is the large number of
corrupt leaders who have either escaped punishment altogether or been
subject to very soft penalties.
Dr Ketan said voters nevertheless tend to quickly forgive tainted
leaders by sending some of them back to parliament.
 
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