Application to dismiss charges rejected

National

By TABITHA NERO
AN application to dismiss fraud charges against former education secretary Dr Michael Tapo was rejected by the Waigani Committal Court yesterday.
Tapo, 61, from Soheneru village, Lorengau, Manus, allegedly misappropriated a total of K1,208,883.21 between June and December 2012.
Magistrate Cosmas Bidar said the court rejected the application because the matter was “premature”.
“The only way to dismiss a case is to consider the evidence first,” Bidar said.
He said Tapo’s matter was premature because the court had not considered sufficiency of evidence as yet.
The application was filed by way of notice of motion on July 25 to dismiss Tapo’s charges of 25 counts of dishonest application, one count of official corruption and one count of abuse of office.
The amount of K1,208,883.21 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.
Police allege 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 contractor’s outstanding payments, allegedly paid K321, 800.85 on June 2, 2012 and K887, 082.36 on Dec 27, 2012 to Yumi Yet Construction Ltd.