Pruaitch to face tribunal

AITAPE-Lumi MP Patrick Pruaitch will face the Leadership Tribunal for alleged misconduct in office – more than 10 years after he was first referred by the Ombudsman Commission.
The commission on July 22, 2009, had referred Pruaitch, then the minister for treasury and finance, to the Public Prosecutor for alleged misconduct in office.
Since then, the commission had faced legal challenges from Pruaitch, preventing the Leadership Tribunal from performing its enquiry into his conduct.
On Dec 6, 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by Pruaitch against a decision of the National Court to throw out his legal challenge to his referral by the Ombudsman Commission.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and ordered that referral pending before the Leadership Tribunal should now proceed to a hearing and final determination on its merits by the Leadership Tribunal.
It also ordered that the Chief Justice “shall take all steps necessary to have the Leadership Tribunal reconstituted to enable it to commence its inquiry into the allegations against the appellant as a matter of urgency”.
“The parties are restrained from returning to the National Court or the Supreme Court on any preliminary issue until the Leadership Tribunal had finally come to a decision on each of the allegations constituting the referral pending before the Leadership Tribunal.”
It ordered Pruaitch to pay the respondents’ costs of and incidental to the appeal, such costs to be taxed if not agreed.