Task Force Sweep to continue

By CHARLES MOI
A COURT has allowed the Investigation Task Force Sweep Team to continue operating by granting a stay on a decision to disband it.
Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia granted the stay order to chairman Sam Koim (pictured) in Waigani yesterday.
Sir Salamo said the overall interest of justice favoured the granting of a stay order.
Sir Salamo said all investigation files needed to remain with the task force sweep team because it was better placed to ensure that the files were kept safe.
He said the safety of the files favoured Koim’s team compared to the interim office of anti-corruption unit Cabinet had set up on June 24, 2014, after it disbanded task force sweep.
Sir Salamo said submissions
by respondents that the Independent Commission Against Corruption Bill would go through its
final reading in the next Parlia-
ment were speculations at this stage.
He said there would not be any difficulty in re-constituting the officers from other agencies back to the Task Force Sweep Team pending the determination of Koim’s appeal.
The Court also ordered Koim to take all steps necessary to ensure the substantive appeal would be heard in April.
Sir Salamo said this was a case
of national interest and he would give the appeal an expedited hearing.
Koim’s stay application stems from the decision by the
National Court to dismiss his judicial review application on Dec 2 last year.
In the judicial review application, Koim had asked the Court to quash Cabinet’s decision in June 2014 to disband task force sweep and direct that all files be transferred to the interim office of anti-corruption.
But the National Court dismissed Koim’s judicial review stating that cabinet’s decision to disband the team was not reviewable by the court as it was a policy decision made by the executive government.