Covid-19 fund abuses surface

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By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
CORONAVIRUS (Covid-19) Controller and Police Comm David Manning says he will not hesitate to conduct criminal investigations into allegations of provincial health authorities (PHAs) abusing funds allocated to fight the pandemic.
“I will wear my police commissioner’s cap to deal with anyone for abusing Covid-19 funds. Such allegations will be treated as criminal,” he added.
At least three allegations of fund abuse have been brought to the attention of Comm Manning.
Documents, whether authentic or not, have surfaced alleging that some K500,000 had been paid to a catering company to provide services at the Rita Flynn isolation centre in Port Moresby.
At press time, it is still unclear whether a hospital or the provincial authority is providing food at the centre.
Comm Manning revealed that he was aware of another two allegations of cases of Covid-19 fund abuse.
“I am looking into and monitoring the use of the funds,” he said, adding that “since Covid-19 operations started last year, I made a personal commitment to disburse public funds responsibly and transparently as much as possible and we have not deviated from that”.
Comm Manning said: “The Covid-19 funds belong to the people. But I am aware that there are some funds being disbursed outside the given transparent protocol and I will be very disappointed if that was the case (K500,000).
“I am also keeping an eye on two other alleged fund abuses.
“We will continue to disburse funds following the right and legal process.
“And if there are (evidences of) fund abuses, I will order criminal police investigations.”
Health secretary and deputy controller Dr Osborne Liko, in expressing similar sentiments, has ordered PHAs to provide acquittals for their campaign against the Covid-19 in their respective provinces before additional funds would be disbursed.
“The Department and National Covid-19 centre (NCC) are the custodian of the governing process and going through the funds of our development partners and the Government,” he said.
“The disbursements from the department to PHAs are accountable with documents and records.
“And now, because of the issues of accountability, we are expecting the PHAs to come forward with the acquittals so that we can disburse the remaining amount to them.
“We understand that there are hotspots in those provinces.
“But at the end of the day, the department, NCC, controller Manning and I will demand full accountability.
“So we are taking full responsibility to get the respective PHAs, chief executive officers to give their acquittals to us before we release the remaining funds.”
Dr Liko said the funds from the Government and development partners were disbursed to PHAs and district development authorities (DDA) nationwide thus far.
“Again we are reminding the DDAs and the PHAs to acquit how they have spent the Covid-19 funds for accountability through the integrated finance management accounting system and other transparent accounting processes through the Treasury and Finance Departments,” he said.
“Any other issues that did not adhere to procurement procedures, we will get a full report like expenditure reports of all personal protection equipment, instruments and other expenses.
“We will compile a comprehensive report and give it to Health Minister Jelta Wong to be presented to the National Executive Council and the Government.”
Meanwhile Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey has announced a K1.745 billion funding for health to address the growing pandemic.
The allocation is a 27 per cent increase of K370 million.

17 comments

  • Very good PC please investigate and hold them responsible for their hide and seek games at the expense of the people. Surprisingly some of these people are very senior people diverting the money for their own gain.

  • The looming threat of Covid19 alarming and threatening every fibre of our being lately. Often you hear PHAs and people from the health departments claiming they are not ready to curb Covid19, there is no enough beds, oxygen bottle, manpower, facility, etc.. My Goodness!! Whatever little that was porked out from the taxpayer’s coffers should be used for the intended purpose. It’s really shameful to call for external assistance and aid so forth and yet we can not manage what little we have..

    • “A general distrust of authority in PNG, a country with a history of corruption and misuse of public funds, is also feeding conspiracies that the COVID-19 surge is a hoax. A long-awaited government audit of COVID-19 expenditure so far has yet to be released;
      As COVID-19 continues its deadly march through PNG, its health system remains in a ‘perpetual state of disaster’ – ABC News

  • Some recycled public servants should be made redundant at the age of 55 years. The longer they serve they plan more evil and of course become stale in their position. Please all you geniune people out there add your comments and a bill should be introduced soon.

  • Please Police Commissioner, check EHPHA, from inside sources, all the 2020 COVID-19 funds have been exhausted by management by lodging in false claims paying to their own business. EHPHA is the worst corrupt in the country. The top management which includes the CEO, two directors and corporate division are heavily involved in this. Need urgent investigations.

  • A good portion of this fund must be put to community awareness of covid 19. Especially, the repercussions, precisely how covid will affect the health, education, and the socio-economic lifestyle of people. There is so much misinformation, even from some very educated citizens that caused people to tend to think that it is some kind of a conspiracy theory. It is obvious in most of our communities as people failed to advocate the new normal policy.

  • Goodness! This is PNG. We are regarded as one of the most corrupt countries on earth. Did you really think that everything would have gone in a nice and clean and transparent manner? Then you are living in a dreamworld. Such amount of money should bengivehnout in batches and under special conditions. First batch should cover few months. Upon acquittal of the first batch PHAs can receive the second batch.
    And one suggestion is this: FORGET ABOUT AWARENESS. THERE IS NO MORE NEED TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT VOVID. IT’S THERE AND THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS ABOUT IT. IN PNG WE PREFER TO LISTEN TO FAKE NEWS. SO LET IT BE. DIRECT AL THE MONEY INTO THE HOSPITALS FOR MEDICINE AND EQUIPMENT.

  • Please police commissioner Check WNBPHA for the 2020 funds. For transparency and accountability.

  • It is just too frustrating to see how those in authority and having access to such funds tend to miss use those public monies. Just the right thing to do is sending funds directly to individual health organizations so that they, Nurses and Health extension officers can do direct and proper health awareness to all villages within their catchment area to deliver the proper information. Currently it’s been seen as a propaganda. Please use the nurses and Health workers directly for awareness purposes. Management funds for quarantine can be left to the PHA.

  • Very educated elites of this country, entrusted to disbursement of public funds to where it is needed most being misused and diverted to other uses other then the intended purposes. PC, make sure law takes its course!!

  • Nice job! Controller please go ahead and do investigation. We are sick and tired of this so called misappropriation.

  • This pandemic is serious!!! Yet this common practice is deeply rooted here in PNG’s public service that we don’t care who dies..!!! Who benefits from such socio-economic situations is becoming a commercial entity!!! The Government of the day should be strict on who manages this kind of donor funds that come into the country. The ordinary people of this beautiful nation have already seen corruptions for the last 40 years and this doing by these public service machineries is yet putting into the minds of these innocent people that COVID 19 is not ‘SERIOUS” and that it just another means by the Health Authorities to gain more from donor countries. Stop this practice before we all are left to die without outside assistance! You are paid to do your jobs! Do it as trained professionals and not as trained thieves!

  • We only need protective gears in PNG. We don’t need any other forms of help from the funds.
    The funds allocated to DDAs & PHAs were just a waste instead the controlling board supposed to order preventive gears for all citizens.

    The hospitals were not ready in a sense that, the stuff were not geared up to tackle the pandemic.

    Kokopo was vacated and patients of other diseases suffered in the hospitals. That means what has been sent to every authority was never utilized as intended.
    What were the descriptions sent ontop of the funds?

    Have you stated the areas of funds to be allocated? Like, construction of facilities, purchase of ventilators, supplying masks, protective service wears/gears for medical stuff etc…?
    Plan the K1.745 billion well or it gets lost in the same trap and the authority might be blamed by the trapping experts!

  • The pandemic act opened a potential andirons box in terms if accountability issues. Thank you David Manning for your stance, misappropriation and abuse of funds at this time is a heinous offense against the community at large. Do not hesitate to prosecute as you push for timely acquittal to expose inefficiency and rooted corruption.

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