Except for Maipakai, two others facing tribunal ousted at polls

By ADRIAN MATHIAS
MARK Maipakai, one of the three members of parliament who faced leadership tribunals this year for alleged misconduct in office, has been re-elected in the Kikori open electorate of Gulf.
His tribunal hearing started on March 30 and ended on June 6, with Maipakai fined K4,500.
He was charged with 16 allegations, 15 of which were in relation to submission of annual returns and one on an extra-marital affair.
He pleaded guilty to seven charges on the late submissions of the annual returns and denied nine.
His lawyer, Martin Kombri, of Paul Paraka Lawyers, said the tribunal imposed fines of K500 on each of the seven charges that he had pleaded guilty and a K1,000 on the extra-marital affair, taking his fines to K4,500.
Maipakai pleaded not guilty to eight charges on the annual returns as well as one on the alleged extra-marital affair during the hearing.
Maipakai’s tribunal was the first to be completed, giving him enough time to campaign  and eventually resulted in his return as Kikori MP for a third term in parliament.
Two others, who faced similar tribunals, were ousted.
They were Angoram MP Arthur Somare and Fidelis Semoso, who was ousted as MP for Bougainville regional, in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
Somare and Semoso did not have the chance to return as MPs as their tribunals proceeded into the campaign period.
Somare was initially charged with 11 allegations involving misapplication of district support grants (DSG) for his electorate and late submissions of annual returns to the Ombudsman Commission.
Eight of his charges were dismissed by the tribunal on July 24, following arguments by his lawyer Ian Molloy.
Penalties were imposed on the three charges on the late submissions that he had pleaded guilty to.
Semoso had been charged with 14 allegations of misconduct in office. They were on misapplication of South Bougainville feeder road project funds and an alleged sexual assault and torture of a wo­man.
The tribunal found him guilty on most of his charges, including the misapplication of K2.7 million South Bougainville feeder road project funds and the sexual assault and torture of a woman.
On July 24, the tribunal sat for ruling and recommended to Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio for Semoso’s dismissal from office.
The Ombudsman Commission’s legal services director Tabitha Suwae said in an email the tribunals had cost the commission roughly about K50,000.