PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare has accused the Ombudsman Commission of acting above the law in sneaking into Parliament the Julian Moti report, The National reports.
"It is arguable that the report was improperly tabled in Parliament in contravention to section 220 of the Constitution," Sir Michael said in a speech to Parliament.
Sir Michael said the procedures for tabling an Ombudsman Commission report to Parliament are set out in section 220.
"Basically, any report must be tabled through the Head of State acting on advice from the National Executive Council.
"In my view, this report did not follow the prescribed procedures and was sneaked in through the back door," he said.
"It is an abuse of Parliament privilege.
"For an organisation that is supposed to conduct itself within the laws, the Ombudsman Commission had again shown itself to be above the law."
Sir Michael, in concluding his statement, said the proceedings in the supreme court of Queensland and the subsequent judgment on the Moti issue was very instructive.
"I urge honourable Members of this House to familiarise themselves with the documents tendered in that court and the ruling by Brisbane supreme court Justice Debra Mullins.
"Suffice to say, Papua New Guinea was unwittingly drawn into the Moti issue by agents of another government trying to carry out a political plan contrived by their government to discredit Moti.
"The lesson here is our law enforcement agents must act independently and not allow themselves to be dictated to by outsiders," Sir Michael said.
The OC carried out their investigation in good faith and found a prima facie case against the PM and others for obstructing justice. It should now go to the Public Prosecutor for a full legal investigation. If there is insufficient evidence for prosecution, than that is OK and due process has been followed. It is TRUE that the PM refused to give evidence and forbade some of his senior officials from giving evidence. This is very suspicious in itself. And the fact remains that numerous PNG laws were broken (as detailed by Sir Mek yesterday), which is completely separate from Moti's court case in Australia.
ReplyDeleteThe Defence Inquiry into Moti's escape 2 yrs ago found out pretty much the same thing, and expressed it in even stronger words. This first report was never tabled in Parliament and the PNG media has been gagged by the PM from quoting it - although it is available on-line.
How can a report be tabled in Parliament "illegally"? Who is in control of Parliamentary procedures? This argument is a joke. Did Manek just sneak into the building at night and deposit the report on everyone's desks?
It was tabled BY THE SPEAKER! It was considered and voted upon UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SPEAKER!
To claim it was "sneaked in by the back door" makes as much sense as the child who said to the teacher "the dog ate my homework sir!"
Somare is senile.