White collar crime eating away PNG

ALLOW me to comment on Papua New Guinea’s share of white collar crime.
The main issue of discussion in the nation happens to be the recapture of William Nanua Kapris.
While I take my hats off to the National Capital District police, crime at its best is imminent within the circles of politicians, bureaucrats and senior public servants.
White collar crimes are committed by persons of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation.
White collar crimes are fraud, bribery, misappropriation, computer crime, public corruption, identity theft, pension fund crime and the list goes on.
The tools of the trade are paperwork and computers.
In PNG, white collar crimes evidently go largely undetected and I believe it is costing the State millions of kina.
Kapris admitted to being politically exploited and this could not be any further from white collar crime.
I would not be wrong to say hypothetically, our nation is on the verge of collapse as the practice of white collar crime has become entrenched in our culture.
Time and again, we hear about mismanagement and malpractice cases in high offices.
White collar crime is rife among politicians and senior public servants.
The parliamentary public accounts committee has constantly revealed millions of kina being diverted or paid without proper checks.
It seems honesty and trust are no longer in the dictionary of many of our politicians and senior bureaucrats.
It is to anyone’s guess what may have transpired.
Many investigations have either been sabotaged or shelved.
This distasteful revelation has shown white collar crimes are flourishing among bureaucrats. 
The recent referral of Minister for Finance and Treasury Patrick Pruaitch to answer allegations of leadership misconduct could amount to white collar crime if convicted.
Nevertheless, the primary findings of this case could be enough to send doubts and mistrust over our senior politicians’ conducts.
The State must declare war against white collar crime.
The justice and law sector, internal and external security forces, Ombudsman Commission, Government officials and the people of PNG need to work together to uproot this scourge.

Kele Yako
Goroka