NEW Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan has been referred to the Ombudsman Commission and Police fraud squad for alleged official corruption.
In a joint media release by Namatanai MP, Walter Schnaubelt and Kavieng MP, Ian Ling-Stuckey the presidents of five Local Level Governments (LLGs) in the Namatanai electorate referred the governor citing alleged gross abuse of office and serious breaches of Public Finances Management Act.
They include Joshua Soi (Namatanai Rural), Isaac Tosel (Konoagil), Augustine Topi (Matalai), Stanley Tunut (Nimamar), Ben Sakbua (Sentral Niu Ailan) and the 65 ward councilors have filed complains against Sir Julius Chan.
Their complaint letter was submitted to the Ombudsman Commission, Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), Police Fraud Squad in Konedobu, Auditor general’s office and the Department of Finance for the investigation to take place.
Governor Chan is accused of failure to complete acquittals for over K400 million royalties of Lihir monies in the past 14 years since 2007, which is a breach of the revised PFM Act. This is also said to be the primary reason behind the delay of the 2021 provincial budget approval.
According to the complaint letter Sir Julius also failed to establish a provincial plan which is a breach of the section 5 and subsection 2 of the PNG planning Monitoring Act 2016 that requires all provincial government to have a five year rolling plan.
The complaint letter filed against governor Chan also accused him of breaching certain sections of the Organic Law.
This includes section 15 subsection 3 of the Organic Law by holding Assembly meeting at the same time when a Parliament session was underway. Section 10 subsection 2 the illegal appointing of three Maimai (chief) instead of one in the provincial assembly. Also section 23 subsection 2 by passing of at least eight elected president and illegally appointed the PPP (People’s Progress Party) liaison officers.
This was revealed by Member for Kavieng Open Ian Ling-Stuckey and member for Namatanai Walter Schnaubelt.
Sir Julius when responding to the allegations said he is not afraid by what is put forward to refer him to the Ombudsman Commission (OC) for leadership breaches.
“These two unscrupulous ankle-biters actions on social media simply show they have no decency and are desperate for power.
“They can do whatever they like. I don’t have anything to hide. As far as I am concerned, their childish postings are simply a feeble attempt at revenge. I have nothing to hide and all of the points they raise are dead issues, already dealt with in the past on the floor of the Provincial Assembly where they belong,” Sir Julius said when responding to Ling-Stuckey and Schnaubelt.
Governor Chan has also been referred to the OC in 2017 by former regional member, late Michael Singan accusing him of illegally acquiring land owned by the Provincial Government located on the hilltop next to the provincial headquarters.
Late Singan also revealed that Sir Julius is the sole shareholder of New Ireland Works limited that his family benefit from. In 2018, OC carried out an investigation based on the accusation by Singan and the impartial investigative reports have claimed Sir Julius Chan as the owner of Blue Sky No. 2 limited, the company which supplied solar lights to the New Ireland Provincial Government.
Thats part of fighting against corruption
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