ESP deputy administrator arrested on fraud charge

EAST Sepik deputy administrator Benjamin Warakai was arrested on Wednesday and charged with the misuse of more than K700,000 belonging to the state.
Another person, Daniel Pirinduo, was picked up by Wewak police and charged with offences relating to the same money.
Warakai was charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the state and one of abusing the office of the Wewak stormwater drainage project while Pirinduo was charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the state and another of obtaining money be false pretence.
These offences breached various provisions of sections 92,404 and 407 of the Criminal Code.
The offences were alleged to have been committed between 2004 and 2005 when Warakai, then provincial works manager, was the project manager of multi-million kina South Korean-funded storm water project.
Both men are on K1,000 bail awaiting their court appearance.
East Sepik police commander Insp Charles Parinjo said they were granted police bail because they were regarded as respected family men in the Wewak community.
Their arrests followed complaints laid by the East Sepik government which was in charge of the first phase of the now controversial project.
According to the police charge sheets, the provincial government claimed that Warakai and Pirinduo had set up a company Elyon Engineering Ltd and engaged it without following normal procurement  process and procedure of the Public Finance Management Act.
In the process, Elyon was paid a total of K758,757.89 from the Wewak stormwater drainage project trust account to be engaged as a sub-contractor to the project’s consulting engineer Hanseok Engineering Consultants.
The provincial government claimed that Warakai did not advice them or seek approval of the deal by submitting a show of interest through the provincial supply and tenders board after the completion of stage two of the stormwater and drainage project on Sept 15, 2004.
It maintains that the payments approved by Warakai were made without the authority of the provincial government and the Department of National Planning and Monitoring and would therefore be deemed illegal.