Man facing abuse of fund charge

By BOURA GORUKILA
FORMER Central treasurer Walis Imbal appeared in the Waigani Committal Court yesterday facing fraud-related charges, involving K34 million belonging to LNG landowners in Central.
He was the second person accused of misusing the money, the first being deputy administrator (PA) Edward Kila.
Imbal, 49, of Kumu village in Banz, Jiwaka, was charged with a count each of abuse of office, misappropriation, conspire to defraud and false pretence and had appeared before magistrate Tracy Ganaii.
It was alleged that between Jan 8, 2013 and July 4, 2018 at the Central administration headquarters in Konedobu, Port Moresby, Imbal abused the authority of the office by failing to manage, coordinate and keep proper records of more than K34 million infrastructure development grant (IDG) funds.
He was alleged to have used the money for unjustified projects and individual payments.
Police files indicated that he dishonestly applied to his own use and the use of former PA Gei Guni Raga, Kila and others the sum of K34,464,509.23 belonging to the province’s LNG-impacted villages, Papa, Lealea, Boera and Porebada.
The alleged corruption was discovered when Raga was replaced by current acting PA Francis Koaba in Nov 2019.
Koaba registered a formal complaint with police and authorised an audit into the IDG account.
Police investigated how the funds were expended between Jan 8, 2013 and July 4, 2018.
Imbal now the assistant secretary, policy, at the Finance Department, was arrested and charged on May 20.
His K1,000 police bail was converted to district court bail.
The case was adjourned to July 7 for mention.