By CHARLIE DUMAVI
NATIONAL Capital District police crime squad is currently investigating Department of Agriculture and Life Stock (DAL) Secretary Stephen Mombi and others for allegedly stealing money belonging to the department.
Mombi, along with former DAL staff and acting CEO of the PNG Spice Board, Michael Waisime and Bucksy Poka, have been accused of stealing by false pretense a sum of K81, 434.52 belong to the PNG Spice Industry Board (PNGSIB) which falls under DAL.
The matter was reported to police by the incumbent CEO of the PNGSIB Dr Nelson Simbiken.
Mombi was invited by police investigators to present himself for interrogation on Thursday last week at 11am but he failed to turn up.
Police are now working on getting arrest warrants and will arrest Mombi to carry out the investigation.
According to the incident brief from criminal investigation division (CID) general crime office the alleged theft happened between 8am and 4pm on October 19, 2021.
It was alleged that Mombi had written two separate letters the Bank South Pacific Downtown Port Moresby branch manager, requesting the bank to put a temporary stop to the PNGSIB account and give effect to the change of signatories.
The two letters dated August 2, 2021 and August 13, 2021 nominated the accused, Waisime and Poka as the new signatories to the said PNGSIB account replacing Simbiken and Mombi.
It was also alleged that this allowed Waisime to collect a new cheque book from the BSP Goroka branch that is said to be used to withdraw the money.
The current PNGSIB CEO Dr Simbiken denied any knowledge of the matter.
He said he had kept asking his subordinates but they denied it until an internal investigation was carried out.
“I am the primary signatory and acting secretary is the secondary signatory. Our signatures are the ones approved by the finance department and the bank accepts that.
“We already had that arrangement in August (2021) and Steven Mombi knows that.”
Dr Simbiken was appointed by PNGSIB as CEO on October 15, 2021, which was before the alleged theft occurred.
He said he was not happy with what has been going on under his leadership.
There are also bank documents showing transactions of K81, 434.52 done by one of the accused, Waisime on October 19, 2021.
Waisime, who was the former CEO of the PNGSIB, Poka the national programme manager, and finance and administration officer Graham Eliuda were charged in relation to the missing money and are now on bail, awaiting further police investigation.
