Probe NICTA on suspicious payments to officers

 THE fraud squad should be called in to probe the payment of K600,000 in December last year by the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA) to two of its senior managers – two weeks after the close of the NICTA accounts last year.

The separate payments of K350,000 and K250,000 were allegedly authorised by the chief executive officer (CEO) as claims against the ICT authority for what appears on face value to be unverified and unsubstantiated damages supposedly suffered by the male and a female officer in 2014, including that for alleged defamation of character and psychological stress.  

The CEO’s action to approve the payments after the close of the annual accounts appears to be highly questionable and begs to be fully investigated. 

The payment for damages stemmed from a drawn-out bitter feud between the two managers and a former director who had raised serious allegations of impropriety against them. 

The CEO had then appointed another director to head an inquiry into the allegations. 

However, the findings of that inquiry seem to have been swept under the carpet and have not been made known to this day.

The director who made the allegations has ceased employment and left the authority in mid-2014.

On yet another messy front, nearly 12 months has passed since the authority paid K10 million amid allegations of kick-back payments for a piece of land located at Badihagwa in Port Moresby for its staff home ownership scheme.

So far, no physical development has taken place at the location and the authority has no title in its possession to show for the purchase the land.

Anti-corruption, Via email