Man facing fraud charges given police files

 By Tabitha Nero
Former Education Department secretary Dr Michael Tapo, facing misappropriation, abuse of office and corruption charges, received police files when he appeared in the Waigani Committal Court yesterday.
Magistrate Cosmas Bidar told Tapo’s lawyer to prepare his submissions on the sufficiency of evidence and present them to court when the matter returned on July 27.
Tapo, 61 and from Soheneru village in Lorengau village, Manus, allegedly misappropriated a total of K1,208,883.21 between June and December 2012.
The amount was allegedly paid to the managing director of Yumi Yet Construction Ltd for the purpose of building, maintenance and renovation of classrooms and teachers’ houses in National Capital District (NCD) schools.
However, it was claimed that to date, no services or very poor services were rendered.
Tapo, who was appointed chairman of a working committee that was formed to assist NCD education services on contractors’ outstanding payments, allegedly paid K321, 800.85  on June 2, 2012 and K887,082.36 on Dec 27, 2012 to Yumi Yet Contruction Ltd.
Tapo allegedly abused his authority by liaising directly with the contractors to submit their invoices and quotation for payments.