Police recover missing properties

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
STATE property worth millions of kina held by a former MP and his supporters have been recovered by the Kerowagi-based police Mobile Squad 08 and an investigation team from Port Moresby.
Police are still investigating and planning to recover other missing heavy machines and vehicles that were bought with district services improvement programme funds.
The machines recovered were an excavator, a dump truck, nine Land Cruisers and a Nissan.
Police in Kerowagi, Chimbu, said last Friday a D9 bulldozer, three dump trucks and six other vehicles were still missing.
A police source said an excavator, a dump truck and two 10-seater Land Cruisers were recovered from Moroma village.
Another district support vehicle was recovered in Minj, one in Mt Hagen and an ambulance recovered in Demang, along the border of Jiwaka and Chimbu.
A vehicle was taken off from a former micro finance officer, while others from supporters of the former MP.
Police started investigations in September with the support of the local MP, Camillus Danguma, to recover the missing state properties.
The police source said a vehicle used by a former district elementary school coordinator had been sold.
Danguma called on the former MP to cooperate and return the other heavy machinery and vehicles.
He said since these machines had been bought and launched in Kerowagi three years ago, they had never been used to upgrade feeder roads in the district.
He said these machines were hired out to construction companies from the province.
“Nobody knows how much money was generated by these machines and who benefited from it,” Danguma said.
He said the recovered machines were still in good condition and he would use them from next year to fix feeder roads in the district.
Danguma said roads in the district such as Mingendi to Gagl, Sim to Nogar, Duramuk to Kup, Ganigle to Kewamugl and many others needed urgent maintenance.