Fraud charges against former administrator dismissed

By SCHOLAR KASSAS
FORMER Central administrator Gei Guni Raga was freed by the Waigani Committal Court yesterday when it dismissed all four fraud charges against him.
The charges stemmed from Central administration and consisted of abuse of office, conspire to defraud, false pretence and misappropriation.
Magistrate Paul Nii in dismissing the charges against Raga, 60, from Gamoga village in Central, also freed two co-accused, Edward Kila and Walis Imbal, of similar charges.
“All the defendants here were charged with the same charges and the facts are all uniform and the only difference was their names, their ages, where they come from and positions they held,” Magistrate Nii said.
“I have assessed evidence in the police file and come to a conclusion that evidence does not meet the elements of abuse of office, false pretence, conspire to defraud and misappropriation.
“All the charges against the defendants are dismissed because the evidence is insufficient to make a serious case.”
Police alleged that between 2012 and 2013, the Government allocated about K35 million to the Central administration under the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) trust account.
Police further alleged that the allocated money was for four impacted villages – Porebada, Boera, Papa and Lealea.
However, the defendant purportedly made payments to companies which were not landowner companies with the description of four LNG impacted villages.
The defendant was alleged to have improperly engaged companies which did not go through sanctions but were paid money.