Former MP welcomes investigation into spending

Islands

FORMER Kavieng MP Ben Micah has welcomed any investigation into the district administration operation over the past five years instigated by his successor Ian Ling-Stuckey.
A Kavieng district audit committee has been established by the Kavieng District Development Authority to find out how more than K45 million was used in the past five years.
The committee comprises of former deputy provincial administrator David Silakot as chairman, Helen Fong-Seeto as deputy and Richard Moni, Richard Taliva and Watson Sole as members.
“I welcome any investigation into the Kavieng district over the past five years by Ling-Stuckey and his political cohorts,” Micah told The National.
Micah is challenging the election result in the court of disputed returns.
He said it was better that LingStuckey brought in the Auditor-General to investigate how the district funds were spent.
“We are not afraid, we are not running away from him or anybody who wants to go in and do investigations, but they must be qualified people,” he said.
“Why doesn’t he pay the Auditor-General or a qualified accountant or professional to conduct the investigation?”
Micah said all Kavieng district reports in the past five years had been submitted to the departments of Rural Development and National Planning.
He said he had inherited a rundown Kavieng district but had transformed it into a “model district” over the past five years with a fully-functioning district administration, district treasury, and well-established local level government planning and budgeting.