O’Neill appears before inquiry

National

IALIBU-PANGIA MP and former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill made his first appearance at the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) loan deal yesterday after being served notices since March.
COI chairman Sir Salamo Injia confirmed that O’Neill had complied with the letter of request and summons that were sent previously.
O’Neill was represented by Greg Sheppard of Young and Williams Lawyers at the COI hearing.
According to Sheppard, O’Neill was happy to assist the commission with whatever information he was required to provide.
He said O’Neill made note of any directions from the commission and could seek some time to comply with it.
“He doesn’t have many documents,” Sheppard said.
“There are some papers from the time he was chairman of National Executive Council but apart from that he doesn’t have very many documents.
“Besides the policy decision, O’Neill had very little involvement in the mechanics of the transaction after that so his stock of documents is very limited.”
O’Neill told The National after his brief appearance that he would comply with the directions of the COI and provide the required documentation.
“These are mainly cabinet documents from National Executive Council we will request Cabinet to provide to the commission.
“List of witnesses that they are asking me, mainly they will be the officials that I will call up who were involved in the process of managing those two loans.
“International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) loan when Somare’s government was there and then the time we tried to pay the IPIC loan with the UBS loan.
“We look forward to appearing on July 8,” O’Neill said.
“We are very much wanting the public to know the truth so we will be there.”

One thought on “O’Neill appears before inquiry

  • Please get those papers to the commission so that the people can know and decide who was involved and who did benefit and if there are people who did wong and broke the laws of the land. This should be done before the 2022 elections so that the people can decide and the best people to represent them in parliament.

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