Police await clearance from bank

National

By JIMMY KALEBE
POLICE investigations into the confiscation of almost K200,000 cash in Lae on Friday are delayed pending further instructions from the Bank of PNG (BPNG), says Lae Met Supt Chief Insp Chris Kunyanban.
He told The National yesterday that police would only start the investigation after BPNG had completed its necessary findings.
“They (BPNG) are the people that monitor the amount of money coming in and out and for what purpose,” he said.
Chief Insp Kunyanban said police at this stage could not go quickly into conducting the investigation but to wait until BPNG established if there were irregularities.
“When the shipment of the money occurred, is there any irregularities occurred or is the way of transferring the money allowed by law?” he asked.
Chief Insp Kunyanban said BPNG would also determine if the bank notes shipped were genuine or fake and that could take a while before police investigation came on.
“BPNG is the regulator and they will have to go through all set procedures and determine all aspects of their Act with regard to how that sum of money is being transferred.”
He said when they established that shipment actually breached one or more of their rules and regulations, then police would base their investigation on those irregularities.
This comes after Lae police acting on a tip-off confiscated K198,011 in cash packed in three boxes and loaded into a container and shipped from Port Moresby to a firm in Wewak, East Sepik via Lae.