ICAC should operate without fear, says leader

Islands, Normal
Source:

The National, Tuesday August 6th, 2013

 OPERATING without fear of favour should be the core function of the office of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, acting East New Britain provincial administrator, Wilson Matava said.

He said this when officially opening the New Guinea Islands consultation workshop on the proposed Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) at Gazelle International Hotel in Kokopo last Friday.

“The definition of corruption would not be complete without the use of such a phrase as ‘without fear or favour,’” Matava said. 

He said the extent of which an entity against corruption would carry out its legislative function hinged on how independently it was set up, structured, financed, staffed and generally resourced. 

“The source of its funding, appointment process, its own reporting responsibilities are all matters that need to be addressed well in order to achieve a truly independent body that is guaranteed to carry out such big tasks and responsibilities without fear or favour,” Matava said.

He suggested that roles and responsibilities, powers of all agencies established by law to curtail corruption should be made known to the community at large. 

“Therefore promotion and awareness is encouraged in ENB for the establishment of ICAC.”

Matava said corruption was here to stay but the issue now was what we are going to do to effectively address it in a way that it minimised, curtailed perpetrators of it and dealt with according to law.

He commended organisations and state agencies that had established internal complaints units as it was an effective way and tool in keeping a check and balance on internal actions in respective institutions as far as public perception was concerned.