K300,000 for internal investigation

 By ZACHERY PER

THE Eastern Highlands government has allocated K300,000 to investigate the awarding of contracts to various companies over the past five years.

Governor Julie Soso said if internal investigations failed, “we will request for the engagement of Task Force Sweep Team”.

She told the provincial assembly in Goroka last Tuesday that corrupt practices and dealings during past regimes must be investigated.

Henganofi MP Robert Atiyafa said the directors of Nokondi Investment, the business arm of the provincial government, mistakenly sold provincial government assets and properties at Paga Hill (Port Moresby) for only K300,000 instead of K3 million as worked out by a private valuer.

He urged the provincial government to repossess the assets and properties because they would generate revenue for province.

Atiyafa said some public servants in the province could be implicated in cases of financial mismanagement.

He said the efforts of the internal investigation team had been hindered by the refusal of some public servants to cooperate.

Nokondi Investments has been injecting K400,000 into the provincial budget over the past 10 years, which was deemed “insufficient”.

Goroka Chamber of Commerce chairman Michael Gotaha said Nokondi Investment, which was mostly involved in real estate, was not operating to expectations and needed an urgent overhaul.

He said 90% of the housing was uninsured and the bond fee had been “misused” over the years.

“The provincial government should clean up the company and make it operate independently like a business arm and not seeing it as a cash cow,” Gotaha said.  

He also said the provincial government under Soso’s leadership was in the process of establishing a road construction company to rehabilitate all road networks in the province.