Commission of inquiry into obtaining loan recommences

National

By HELEN TARAWA
THE Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the process and procedures followed by the PNG Government in obtaining the off-shore loan from the Union Bank of Switzerland and related transactions recommenced on Friday.
The COI was deferred from March 23, following the coronavirus pandemic. Scheduled for hearing were Kumul Consolidated Holdings Ltd (KCHL) managing director Isikeli Taureka and former minister for state enterprises Arthur Somare.
The inquiry commenced briefly and was later adjourned to May 25 to allow for other witnesses to make their appearances.
Somare told The National that he had completed compiling all documents that the commission had required him to submit.
“We’ve completed the compilation of all our documents, obviously, my task is to assist the commission to get down to the bottom of what they seek to find from their terms of reference,” he said.
Somare was asked to provide evidence related to the IPIC transaction and to give evidence to the commission for them to deliberate on.
“I was one of the government officials at that time that worked together on the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) transaction so we carry some of the memory of that transaction.”
KCHL managing director Taureka was represented by his counsel.
Meanwhile, COI chairman Sir Salamo Injia said the commission would start with its evidentiary hearing by July with or without the overseas counsellors and solicitors.
Sir Salamo told the inquiry that preparations for the arrival of the overseas counsel and solicitors were not ready.
He said the commission could no longer wait.

One thought on “Commission of inquiry into obtaining loan recommences

  • This is one of the many very important and interesting inquiries and has to be undertaken properly and diligently – there’s a lot of public money invested into this and we demand those in-charge of ensuring this is properly investigated perform to expectations. if it means ensuring the presence of those overseas counsels then make that happen – this was talked about before the COVID-19 Lock down restrictions came into place and here we are still waiting on these councils to set foot in the country. Someone’s obviously not doing their part in ensuring these counsels arrive to be part of this enquiry. There is too much talk and nothing seems to be progressing with this enquiry and money continue to be wasted doing short sittings and deferrals.

Comments are closed.