By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
POLICE are concerned that the continued adjournment of Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai’s court case is delaying investigations into allegations of misappropriation of election funds.
Police Prosecutor Inspector Simon Hombigu recently appeared before Senior Magistrate Danny Wakikura at the Waigani District Court to urge the court to revoke the stay order that has deferred the case twice due to the non-appearance of Mr Sinai’s lawyer.
Hombigu requested that Magistrate Wakikura hear his submission to revoke the stay order so that police can continue investigating Mr. Sinai and his Deputy Electoral Commissioner for Corporate Services, John Kalamorah.
However, Magistrate Wakikura stated that it would be better for the lawyer representing Mr. Sinai and Mr. Kalamorah to be present before he can make a ruling.
Inspector Hombigu is in court to make a submission for the court to set aside the stay order issued by the Waigani District Court on December 14th, 2022, which halted police from investigating Mr. Sinai and Mr. Kalamorah on allegations of misappropriating funds during the 2022 National elections.
The allegations involve the allocation of funds by Mr. Sinai to a company to install surveillance cameras in selected counting rooms throughout the country during the 2022 National elections. However, it is alleged that the company took the money and never delivered the project. The National Fraud and Anti-Corruption (NFACD) detectives obtained a search warrant on October 11th, 2022, against Mr. Kalamorah and on October 19th, 2022, against Mr. Sinai to search for financial documents in the corporate division of the Electoral Commission.
Mr. Sinai and Mr. Kalamorah then took a stay order against the search warrants, claiming that the stay order was defective. They claimed that NFACD Detective Chief Inspector Gitua had forged outgoing acting NFACD Director Chief Inspector Kuiab Pare’s signature to apply for the search warrant without Kuiab’s knowledge. They also claimed that the complainant, Noel Anjo, is a failed candidate and has political motives to lay this complaint.
Magistrate Wakikura adjourned the case to March 28th, 2023, after Mr. Sinai and Mr. Kalamorah’s lawyer, Mr. Kayoma Akeya, made a submission to stay the search warrant. The then-Police Prosecutor Sergeant Joseph Sangant, who was prosecuting the case, was unavailable in court when Magistrate Wakikura issued the stay order as he was on duty travel in Mt. Hagen, Western Highlands Province. The case was adjourned to give an opportunity for police to argue before the court to set the stay order aside and allow police to search for financial documents in the Corporate Division to investigate Mr. Sinai and Mr. Kalamorah.
