Abuse of office common: Court

Abuse of office is becoming quite a frequent offence nowadays, Waigani Committal Court Magistrate Cosmas Bidar says.
Bidar made the comment in court yesterday when committing a man from East Sepik to stand trial at the National Court for allegedly using his position to obtain money belonging to the PNG Teachers Association (PNGTA).
It was alleged that Andric Yagro, 54, from Bogumatai village, East Sepik had used his position to dishonestly apply to the use of others K138,000 from the association.
The Waigani Committal Court found sufficient evidence against Yagro and committed him to stand trial at the National Court.
“This offence under Section 92 of the Criminal Code is basically directed to public servants who abuse their positions to obtain or extort money and we have similar cases in court,” Bidar said.
“In this case it is similar. The court has considered the evidence thoroughly in respect to the allegation of the abuse of office and the dishonest application.
“And the court’s view is that from the overall assessment, the evidence is sufficient to put the defendant’s case to trial at the National Court.”
The court heard that between July 1 and 31, 2016 at the PNGTA head office in National Capital District, Yagro who was employed as a caretaker administrator with the PNGTA, threatened and directed the accounts officer and the executive secretary to process the payroll under suspicious circumstances and deliberately paid K138,226.10 in total to unauthorised persons.
The court also heard the accused used his office to obtain a substantial amount of money by paying it into his son’s account who was not an employee of PNGTA.
The accused is out on bail and will appear before the National Court for listing on Oct 30.