Ex-official jailed for 3yrs

By ZEDAIAH KANAU
FORMER acting chairman of the Securities Commission and Registrar of Companies Alex Tongayu has been sentenced to three years in jail by the Waigani National Court after being found guilty of two counts of forgery.
Justice Teresa Berrigan, in handing down her decision last Friday, said that “forgery, like other offences involving dishonesty, is increasingly prevalent”.
Justice Berrigan suspended one year from the sentence while Tongayu’s bail money was refunded.
Tongayu in his capacity as acting chairman of the Securities Commission and Registrar of Companies had worked with the Minister for Trade Commerce and Industry Richard Maru for five years.
Maru became dissatisfied with Tongayu’s response to his request for information and advice regarding the change in ownership of a company registered with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), which he regarded as suspicious.
On Oct 20, 2016, Maru revoked Tongayu’s appointment as acting chairman of the Securities Commission.
Tongayu then forged two instruments of appointment, containing identical signatures inserted by electronic means, purporting to be those of Maru.
The instruments were published in Gazette No.441. At the time, Maru was in his electorate.
He returned to Port Moresby and upon learning of the appointments revoked them on July 19, 2017, before reporting the matter to police.
“The signatures forged were purportedly those of the Minister responsible for Trade, Commerce and Industry,” Justice Berrigan said.
“To forge the signature of a member of Government is extremely serious.”
She said the purpose of the forgeries was to appoint the defendant to two senior and important public offices.
“The offences involved a very serious breach of trust by the offender both of the senior position he still held with the Investment Promotion Authority, and of the trust placed in him in the positions he previously held working closely with the minister.”
Justice Berrigan said the purpose of the Securities Commission was to ensure trust and confidence in the capital market and protect consumers and investors, including through regulation and enforcement.
“I have no doubt that the discovery of the offender’s appointment to the helm of those institutions through the brazen forging of the minister’s signature must have tarnished the reputation of those offices, and had a serious effect on the public confidence not only in the work of those offices but in the administration of government services as a whole,” Justice Berrigan said.