Tjandra case returns

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says Government officers allegedly involved in facilitating the entry of Indonesian fugitive Djoko Tjandra will be investigated and prosecuted.
“And those people named in the Ombudsman Commission’s report, I have given instructions for them to be removed from public services and referred to police to be investigated,” O’Neill said.
“We have taken note in the Ombudsman Commission’s report. We have proceeded in taking a few steps including cancellation of his (Tjandra) passport and I’m led to believe that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation passport has been cancelled as a result.
“After all, you need a passport to have an Apec passport. But I will need clarification before coming back to you. And, secondly, the issue on the steps that needs to mitigate such incident in the future, let me say the processes are there.
“It is the people implementing the process and approving the process that need to take place have abused it. So, I can assure you that people who have been named, I have given instruction that they will be disciplined and removed.
“And if there are criminal charges that need to be laid on them, then it is up to the police to determine what charges to be laid. So, I can assure you that they will be dealt with and if they have not been dealt with, I will find out and let you know.”
Northern Governor Gary Juffa had asked O’Neill about what actions had been taken since Parliament had tabled the OC’s report on Tjandra in October last year.
In the report, it implicated former Minister for Justice and Attorney-General Ano Pala, former chief migration officer the late Mataio Rabura, former acting chief migration officer Joseph Nobetau, former PNG ambassador to Indonesia Peter Ilau, former Goilala MP Mathew Poiya, then PNG immigration director Visa Delilah Madao So’osane and National Executive Council Secretary Ilagi Veali,.
Tjandra had escaped to PNG in a chartered plane on June 9, 2009, two days before being convicted for swindling about K200 million from the Bali Bank in 1999.
He was also granted PNG citizenship, a PNG passport and an Apec passport in a controversial manner allegedly by those officers implicated in the OC’s report.
Meanwhile, Justice and Attorney-General Steven Davis said that they were now in the process of implementing the OC’s recommendation to investigate Tjandra.
“My department has presented a Regulation to Cabinet for endorsement, which is required under our bilateral agreement with Indonesia. And Cabinet has endorsed those regulations which now mean that enforcement reciprocal judgment and enforcement of court order is now possible to deal with Tjandra,” Steven said.
“But there are other government agencies that were named in the Ombudsman Commission’s report which they have to enforce, including the OC’s recommendations.
“The Parliament through the Speaker enforced the recommendation that they are required to do and that was to table the report.”