Former OC officer faces K400,000 fraud charges

A FORMER finance manager at the Ombudsman Commission is facing 29 counts of fraud-related charges involving more than K400,000, police say.
According to National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate director Chief Superintendent Mathew Damaru, Geita Doura, 43, of Gabi village in Hanuabada, Port Moresby, was facing 11 counts of misappropriation, 11 of false pretences, five counts of false accounting and two counts of money laundering. The total amount involved is K419,927.42.
Doura allegedly committed the offences between March 19, 2012, and Aug 6, 2014. It is alleged that during that period, he invented a scheme whereby he would make salary payments of staff to their bank accounts and simultaneously make duplicate payments in an encrypted file credited to his two personal bank accounts.
He and another officer were sacked by the commission and the matter was reported to the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate for investigation. The other officer is already serving a six-year jail term at Bomana Prison.
Doura is on bail to await court proceedings.