Police arrest, charge Fr Jan with corruption, abuse of office
POLICE in National Capital District have arrested and charged the secretary for the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Fr Jan Czuba with one count of official corruption and nine counts of abuse of office.
The charges against the 61-year-old from Giwice, Poland, are in relation to a K4.2 million fraud investigation.
Fr Jan was ordered to pay K3,000 bail when he was transferred to the Boroko police station from Konedobu and is to appear in court next week.
The charge by detectives from the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate comes after it was alleged that Fr Jan, in his capacity as secretary engaged services of a Polish company namely PCG Academia to provide and manage software facilities for the online applications and online selection programme without following the proper procurement process to secure the contract.
Detective Chief Supt Matthew Damaru alleged that Fr Jan engaged his business partners and associates on the department’s expense “on goods and services from his private companies” in which he authorised the payments.
“Police investigations established that the procurement of software services from PCG Academia were illegal and cannot be enforced,” he said.
“However, despite the contract being illegal and not enforceable, the department paid more than K4.2 million under the purported contract from 2017 to 2020.
“Police investigation also revealed that Fr Jan had used his office to engage his long-time associates and business partners and a consultant for the software programme.”
10 comments
The allegations seemed a bit ridiculous. I do not believe Damaru, it seems he is acting irrationally and we should start to question his integrity. The online application system has proven to be more effective than the old manual system which really consumes a lot of funds from the education department.
After hearing about this from “faceless book” I called Fr Jan and told me he was not concerned and stated that he had fired some senior members of Higher Education, and they along with “friendly” police had concocted the allegations to discredit him. He also indicated that severe pressure was applied by the Government for him to release finds from Department to help fill cover some expenses of the Government at Loloata, he refused which may have also added fuel to the fire. I can say no more, but it is in the interest of DWU, WPU and indeed PNG to ignore the postings. Fr Jan says he has top legal advise to counteract the allegations.
For your information only.
This is a note from Sir Peter Barter.
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Looks like there is foul play involved. The National should be more careful in publishing such news without consulting the people affected. I am a PNG citizen leaving in Europe reading this article. And because I am a bit familiar with PNGs ways of doing things it was not a real news to me, because I sense some foul play already. Now imagine other people overseas with no background knowledge of PNG reading such news. The damage has been done. So over to you journalists. Please verify the facts of any item you want to write about. Ask witnesses, interview the people directly involved in such cases and don’t just put something together from hearsay. Investigative journalism in PNG is done by Scott Waide only. Everyone else seems to be just writing a story without considering whether it is true or not. If this is false as claimed by Sir P B, then The National needs to aoologized to Fr. Jan.
There is merit in the arrest of this Secretary. His response is not right. He shifts blame to former employees in an attempt to deviate the real issue. He has forced some State Universities to use UNI10 system to do registrations and keep all databases of these Universities two years ago. The server for this system is based in Poland ad all consultants had to be flown in from Poland to provide technical assistance at enourmous costs. His business partner and former ICT Manager of DWU was taken into DHERST and through him persons of questionable ICT qualifications have been forced upon Universities in PNG. I really think a proper investigation with wide TORs is called for. Keep up the good work, Damaru
HE IS MOVING THE COUNTRY FORWARD IN THIS DIGITEL WORLD. AS ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL OF A PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL, I AM WELL PLEASED WITH HIS ONLINE APPLICATION AT DHERST AND ALSO THE SDCS (STUDENT DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM). A GREAT MAN
I do not believe this. This guy has been doing a lot of good things for PNG through Divine Word University and the Higher Education Department. The online application system is the best thing that has happened in PNG as far as higher education is concerned so who’s cooking up these allegations?
This guy has done a fantastic job in PNG for quite a long time and this report is complete rubbish at its best from National News paper and its political masters. I trusted PMJM and this Government till now but now this? Why cant anyone do anything right in this country including the police?
Let Fr. Jan explain to this country in court and we don’t need to speculate the matter before the court. If there is no evidence, then court will tell us.
After all the good undertakings, the established protocols need to be observed to ensure transparency and accountability thrives in all facets.
PNG is truly a land of the Unexpected. Am not sure if somebody of Jzan calibre would sell his dignity built over a lifetime to corruption.
At the same time, all allegations are concocted against people who want to do right.
It’s a battle between good and evil.
Everyone has some degree of evil. It requires control in our life journey. Not careful and evil will take control.
People change from good to bad and bad to good over the course of their life journey.
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