O’Neill lauds effort by Igime and board

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has welcomed the effort of the Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd board in pursuing and recovering assets and cash belonging to the organisation that were invested under questionable circumstances abroad.
“I must commend the work of chairman Bonny Igime and his board and management at MVIL.
“Their efforts are in line with one of the pillars of our government – to fight corruption and promote good governance,” O’Neill said.
“On the face of it, the K100 million investment in a company in Australia appears a bad investment and I fully support the effort to recover this money.
“So far, K9 million has been recovered.
“I am sure that with everyone’s cooperation, all of the money will be returned to the stakeholders and owners of MVIL.”
He said what was happening at MVIL, and what had been uncovered in other organisations such as the National Gaming Control Board and the Department of National Planning were practices that were left unchecked and allowed to flourish.
“When we took office on Aug 2 last year, we made a commitment to eradicate these kinds of practices in our system.
“While I admit that the court cases and the looming general election are a distraction, our commitment to fight corruption remains unwavering.
“We will continue to pursue this goal and bring perpetrators to justice,” O’Neill said.
He said a lot remained to be done to clean up bad and corrupt practices that had eroded government organisations and corporations.
“These institutions are owned by the people. They have been allowed to deteriorate under the Somare government over the last nine years.
“The nine months we have may not be enough to clean them up, but at least we will have made a start and laid
the foundation for growth and better service delivery that is expected from these institutions.”
In a report yesterday, Igime said the MVIL had recovered K9 million from a K100 million invested under questionable circumstances in Australia.
He said the recouped money had been remitted into its lawyer’s trust account in Port Moresby.
The K100 million investment was made with Woodland Capital Ltd.