Chairman certain of progress

COMMISSION of Inquiry (COI) chairman Sike Julian Toulik has assured the public that the investigation into the sale and purchase of the Motukea Wharf in Port Moresby will progress to its finality.
Toulik gave this assurance to members of the COI in Port Moresby yesterday after it had to adjourn its matters to Thursday due to the unavailability of witnesses.
“General Election 2022 (GE22) is currently on and it takes a lot of time for the current members (of parliament) and those (witnesses who) are required to attend for the hearing this (yesterday) morning,” he said.
“Sometimes, the situation can be unavoidable and this is one of the main reasons why there is an adjournment after adjournment taking place, but that is not to say that we are going backwards.”
Toulik assured members of the COI, national leaders and the people that they were doing fine and had progressed well to date.
“I want to see the finality of the report and with the backing of the government we are assured to continue and complete this,” he said.
Counsel assisting the COI Gibson Geroro told Toulik yesterday that he was still awaiting advice from Government concerning the COI’s request for an extension of the sittings.
Geroro also said the witnesses were still unavailable due mainly to GE22 and requested for an adjournment to tomorrow (Thursday) which was granted by Toulik.
The National reported earlier that in 2019, the Marape-led Government froze the contract with Curtain Brothers, pending a proper investigation into the sale and purchase of Motukea.
The Government also sanctioned an investigation into the purchase of the Motukea Port by the Peter O’Neill-led government.
In 2014, the government signed a purchase agreement to relocate Port Moresby’s wharf to Motukea.