ABG President Toroama wields hammer on corruption

National

Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) president Ishmael Toroama says the ABG will be introducing an Anti-Corruption Bill to combat corruption on Bougainville.
Toroama said the proposed bill would address long-standing issues of corruption within the Bougainville administration as well as the leadership levels.
“Addressing corruption within the government was one of my campaign platforms before I got elected into office as president in 2020,” Toroama said.
“With most of the work on independence readiness progressing well, my attention is now trained on curbing corruption within the ABG.
“It is time our public service, our leaders and agencies do things transparently and be accountable for their actions,” Toroama said.
Toroama said that in the last 17 years, corruption had been systematic in the ABG. He said that this gave way for the misuse of public funds, awarding of government contracts and the general decline of accountability by those in positions of authority.
He said these issues had stunted growth and progress in all sectors of government and the Bougainville administration.
Toroama revealed that he would be inviting the Fraud Squad into Bougainville again to complete their investigations prior to being interrupted by the previous government.
“I want to assure our people that this time the government will not interfere in the work of the investigators and auditors.