Woman owns up, says K60,000 accounted for

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Friday 3rd May 2013

 THE holder of the bank account which Lae MP Loujaya Toni said K60,000 of Lae district funds were deposited into late last year came forward yesterday and confirmed the transaction.

But the woman (name withheld) claimed the amount to be K50,000 and was paid into her personal account with Bank South Pacific (BSP) in December 2012. 

She also admitted to have received another amount of K9,500 cash out of a K10,000 cheque donated by the National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) towards a Lae city youth reconciliation initiative by Toni late last year.

“An officer with minister Toni’s Lae district office (named) said K500 was deducted as bank fee,” the woman recalled on condition of anonymity.

“Yes, the money was paid into my account and the funds were used to repay the expenses incurred in staging three city-wide youth gathering at Eriku on Nov 15 and 17 and then again on Dec 12 last year.”   

“Though minister Toni appointed the dates, she never attended.”

One Ali Gena, who accompanied her, said the three youth gatherings were huge and involved a lot of logistics, awareness and materials that incurred substantial cost.

“Because we were assured by the minister, we operated on credit to organise the event and when the funds came in December, it all went to offset the debt,” the woman said.  

The woman assured The National yesterday that the funds were spent on its intended purpose and she would present an acquittal report to the Lae district treasurer next Monday. 

Toni had ordered an investigation into a K60,000 “missing” from her discretionary funds. 

Attempts to contact Toni yesterday were unsuccessful.