Icac receiving complaints
By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
THE Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) will investigate only allegations of corruption committed after the legislation was passed, interim chairman Thomas Eluh says.
He said they had already received an overwhelming number of complaints on corruption in public offices.
“That shows that the public is now concerned about allegations of corrupt practices and want actions to be taken,” he said.
“But ICAC will not investigate allegations of corruption committed prior to the passing of the Organic Law on Independent Commission Against Corruption. “We will only investigate corruption incidents that were allegedly committed after Nov 12 (when the law was passed in Parliament).
“Only if the new (cases) are linked to previous (cases), then it can be investigated with agencies like the Police and Ombudsman Commission.”
He said Icac was “like a baby as we are just crawling”.
Eluh thanked the Government and the 96 MPs on both sides of Parliament who unanimously passed the law on Nov 12.
He said work on the law began when Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare included PNG as a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in 2004.
The Peter O’Neill led Government then endorsed the national anti-corruption strategic plan 2010-2030 crafting the way forward for a multilateral approach to fight corruption.
The Marape-led government then progressed the development of the law to its passing.
17 comments
This is a great start by the PNG government. We need transparency in the country at all levels in society. People must live in prosperity & not poverty.
The ICAC body must manage its own affairs & not be controlled by the government. Discipline those who do not follow orders when found to be corrupt.
Things will definitely change slowly.
Please give us the contact details so that we can call/email if we see any type of corrupt act.
Well done Mr. Marape, we need a transparent government
concerned citizen
Milne Bay Province, Alotau
So you mean to say that corruption done before will not be investigated in LLGs, Districts and Provincial Government and you want to walk away with the thieves
Someone who has had a look at the ICAC Law make it clear to the general public whether allegations of corrupt practices committed before the passage of this particular law will not be investigated. If so, what becomes of all the corruption involving billions of public monies by those in authority over the many years???
People of PNG must know how to approach the ICAC if and when there is a suspicious of corruption.
AWARENES OR PROCEDURE INFORMATION CAN BE PROVIDED BY THE ICAC.
So that means all past corruptions are innocent now? ICAC should be dealing with the Present and also past corruption. Workim samting stret na Work mas go stret..
This law must cover everything and not only when it was passed on the specific time.
It’s a law to stay or remain- law breakers from yesterday and years ago must face the consequences of their actions and not to be judged from the 12th because it was passed on that date
It means corruption was never prosecutable until now?!!
Mr Thomas Eluh, you are a professional lawyer and did some admirable service to the country.
Please just amend some sections of the law that needs changing, so it applies to all manner of corrupt practices, past or present, big or small, can be successfully prosecuted, regardless of when it happened.
I think we let him run until 2022 because he already passed the 2021 budget let him run until 2022 .
Kera Ario
How comes the law makers overlooked the past corruption instances and passed the law on ICAC?
This is absolutely unacceptable. Corruption has and continues to cripple this beutiful country and sending it to the dogs.. those who have manipulted the system and continued to corruptley fattened themselves should not escape being investigated. This law is meant to catch the corrupted individuals of entities that have crippled this nation to date. they should NEVER escape.. should go back as far as possible to root the source of corruption. Otherwise, ICAC is inaffective, and serves no purpose..
Mr Eluah can the details of this new ICAC law be made available online so all elites can read and understand. Not you telling us that that it will only investigate and prosecute offenders after the passage of this law and excluding corruptions done before.
A very good piece of legislation and becomes immediately useless because it can’t investigate past crimes and bring people to face the law for the crimes they committed against the people. For example POs involvement in the past NPF, PNGBC, UBS loan and purchase of controversial Israeli generators.
Thank you Iso. Truly agree with you.
Needs amendments to the law to make it more powerful and effective so all forms of corruption; past, present and future can be successfully prosecuted.
This will give us some satisfaction and relief, knowing that all fraudsters will have no place to hide going forward.
There can be amendment made to it to allow prosecute retrospectively just like the law in Australia which allowed priests and brothers to be prosecuted for sexually assaults committed 20-40 years ago.
ICAC is our hope for transparency and accountability against the perpetrators who abuse powers vested in the office they represent .Seems that the Politicians are the worst culprits.We can only trust a very few of them.
Please ensure that this body(ICAC) is administered by foreign individuals based on merit. Corruption is deeply rooted in our society.We can no longer trust our own people when it comes to Power & $$$. How sad that is. Systems are meant to work,they have been developed with collective wisdom by those responsible.
Pasin tumbuna that promotes our good melanesian value system enhance by Christian principles is now something of the past.
ICAC , is a silver lining on the horizon to fight against corruption.
With ICAC in place, we as the responsible body must be able to dig up history, deal with the current and future. If we do such, ICAC will have the teeth to bite. Otherwise …..
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