Fraud squad to look into Western audit report

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has told Parliament that he will refer an audit report to the fraud squad to investigate contracts for projects worth millions of kina in Western.
He was responding to South Fly MP Sekie Agisa’s questions on Friday on a K10 million funding commitment for the Daru town roads.
O’Neill said he had received the audit reports which he would clear by this week and once he was satisfied, he would lift the ban on the funds.
“The early advice I’m getting is that there has been some level of misuse that has taken place and the funds have been misused,” he said.
“I will refer that report to the fraud squad and we will start investigating each particular contract awarded to those individual companies and they will be held accountable for projects that were paid out but not implemented.
“We are talking about millions of kina that have been missed that belong to the people of Western province.”
O’Neill explained that the K10 million funding earmarked for the Daru town roads was not sufficient.
He said the challenge for Daru was enormous and the government would facilitate the K10 million.
He said funds available at the Mining Department earmarked for all the districts in the Western were being sought to fund that project.
“That’s why we’ve been trying to work with the funds that have been available at the Department of Mining.
“This will enable them to counterpart the funding arrangements so they can rebuild the entire Daru township roads.
“I’m aware that the designs have been already completed for the resealing of the roads.
“I’ve extended the works scope for the water and sewerage for Daru because this is one of the few towns in PNG where that bucket system still existing.
“That is why I’m very keen on getting the project out of the way but we’ve had challenges around the management of the funds.
“Once I’m satisfied that there’s good level of accountability on the projects, I will uplift the ban so that members of the three districts can access those funds for projects like the Daru town roads.”