Kokopo businessman Eremas Wartoto waving to the crowd from his Fokker 50 aircraft in Port Moresby last week.-Picture by EKAR KEAPU
By JACOB POK
KOKOPO businessman Eremas Wartoto has been arrested, questioned and charged by Port Moresby police, The National reports.
He was locked up at the Boroko police station for three hours yesterday before being released on a
K5,000 police bail.
Wartoto has been charged with misappropriation of K7 million of rehabilitation of education sector implementation (RESI) funding for the Kerevat National High School.
He confirmed with The National last night that his charges were in relation to the school RESI funds.
The school funds involved more than K7 million made in two separate payments.
Special task force on corruption chairman Sam Koim told The National that Wartoto was also being investigated for the K10 million development funds from National Planning and Monitoring which he used to start his airline company, Travel Air, and "a myriad of other companies he owns or controls".
Wartoto, when contacted last night, said he would release a media statement today.
Koim said in a statement Wartoto was the first to be arrested by the task force appointed by the NEC on Aug 11 to investigate allegations of corruption at the department involving about K2 billion.
Yesterday's arrest related to more than K7 million that Wartoto had allegedly received through two separate payments for Kerevat National High School.
Koim said he was charged with misappropriation under section 383(A)(91) of the Criminal Code Act.
"As a matter of law, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He must now go through the normal criminal process in court to prove his innocence of the charge laid against him."
Wartoto is expected to appear in court this week.
THE national government will ensure that local level government wards in the country are given necessary machinery and vehicles to facilitate the delivery of basic services, National Planning Minister Sam Basil says, The National reports.
He said last week in Kokopo, East New Britain, the government would focus on rural areas which currently lacked basic services.
Basil said LLG managers needed to have bulldozers which they must operate and maintain for at least 2,000 hours, and use them during bad weather to repair roads.
"This way LLGs can fix their roads and open up the market for people in rural areas," he said.
He said LLG managers must each have a police car and an officer who could train 10 locals as reservists to help monitor law and order in the communities.
Basil said police presence must be maintained in rural areas in light of recent land and social problems.
He said an ambulance should be stationed at the LLG level to help those seeking health services
Basil said the VSat system was important to provide communication so that LLGs could be hooked up to a fax machine and access internet to submit reports to the provincial and national governments when needed.
He said a tractor would allow the LLG to plough the land for agricultural use.
Basil said all these could be operated on a user-pay basis but the government must provide these equipment and vehicles so that people could enjoy better services.
He urged parliamentarians to wisely use the K20 million they received from the government on sustainable projects.
THE East Sepik provincial government yesterday called on the Ombudsman Commission to stop the National Executive Council from reconvening parliament next Tuesday, The National reports.
In an urgent submission to Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek, East Sepik Governor Peter Wararu said parliament's recall before the scheduled Sept 20 meeting was "sub-judice" and "contemptuous" of the Supreme Court which was presently deciding on the legitimacy of the government under Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.
A five-man bench of the Supreme Court is due to hear the matter tomorrow.
O'Neill announced last weekend that parliament would be recalled on Sept 6 to debate important laws pertaining to the reserved seats for women, the proposed provinces of Jiwaka and Hela and whether or not to retain provincial seats beyond 2012.
Wararu urged the Ombudsman Commission to invoke its powers under section 27(4) of the
Constitution to direct members of the NEC, the speaker and each member of parliament to stop the recall of parliament next Tuesday.
Wararu said that an early recall of parliament was in breach of the Organic Law.
He noted that when parliament adjourned on Aug 9, it had fixed its next meeting for Sept 20.
He said the public notice by the speaker had relied on section 2(1)(a)(iii) of the Organic Law but, in its true context, this only applied "where there is an emergency situation arising within the meaning of Part X of the Constitution".
"Parliament has fixed Sept 20 as the date for the next meeting and only parliament can change that date.
PRIME Minister Peter O'Neill has promised that senior public servants, politicians and other people who have stolen millions of kina from the Department of National Planning will be investigated, charged and prosecuted, The National reports.
O'Neill said an investigation into the department was almost completed and arrests were expected soon.
He was speaking in Mendi last Thursday.
He said mismanagement and corruption in governments departments would "bring the country down".
He said an independent commission against corruption would be established next month to look into allegations of corruption.
By JUNIOR UKAHA
Two people have been detained and charged by police with the murder of John Hulse, the expatriate who was killed at NapaNapa in Port Moresby on July 23, The National reports.
Taita Sarah Prichard, 44, and James Paru, 50, both from Hisiu village, Bereina, Central, were charged with one count of murder each on Aug 27.
Hulse, 62, who held dual US and Australian passports, died after being shot with a shotgun while trying to retrieve his lost passport from unidentified callers.
NCD metropolitan commander Supt Joseph Tondop alleged that Prichard, an Australian national and the estranged wife of the deceased was implicated as the prime suspect.
The police brief said Prichard went into Hulse's boat anchored at the yacht club and took his passport and that of his Cambodian girl friend before leaving.
"On Saturday, July 23, at about 10am the first accused and her co-accused rang the deceased to pick up the two passports at the gate of InterOil NapaNapa refinery where he was shot dead and was half burnt by a bush fire," the police statement said.
Tondop said they had recovered the shotgun used in the killing at Paru's house in Sabama, NCD.
"The two accused are detained at the Boroko police cells and will appear in court this week," Tondop said.
Police have yet to find the people responsible for the death of John Sine Kaupa, the operations manager of Kuima Security Services, The National reports.
NCD metropolitan commander Supt Joseph Tondop said although a few suspects had been taken in for questioning, police were yet to establish whether they were the people who had killed Kaupa.
"Police have questioned two to three suspects believed to be part of the group and others are expected to be rounded up," Tondop said.
He said the Chimbu and Tari community living at 9-Mile lived in close contact and they should know the identities of the killers as the incident took place in daylight.
He said the NCDC law and order committee and police had arranged for a peace mediation meeting between the fighting factions at Jack Pidik Park at 10am today.
He said leaders from the Tari and Chimbu community would meet to talk and restore peace in the area.
Tondop said NCD Governor Powes Parkop, Moresby Northeast MP Andrew Mald and parliamentarians from Chimbu and Tari had been told of the meeting and were expected to address the leaders.
Tondop said ethnic clashes had become a national issue and police alone could not solve the problem.
He said tougher punishment must be issued to people involved in ethnic clashes of any sort, "so that others who are thinking of fighting will think twice".
THE 23-foot dinghy that was carrying the five research scientists from the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR) was found in Wewak, East Sepik, over the weekend, The National reports.
West New Britain provincial police commander Thomas Reu said yesterday that a photo was taken of the boat and sent to the PNGIMR and disaster officials in Kimbe.
They confirmed that it was the boat that the five had got on when they went missing in Talasea waters early this month.
The five are team leader Gibson Gideon from Enga, research scientists Leonard Vavana from East New Britain, George Dogoya from Lufa, Eastern Highlands, plus female members Tania Oakiva from Gulf and Lydia Petrus, from Ialibu, Southern Highlands.
Reu said police had not ruled out foul play.
The five scientists and the vessel's crew had planned to travel from Milimata, on the mainland, to the offshore island of Bali on Aug 1.
They never arrived at their destination.
He said search and rescue operations were still going on.
Acting West New Britain disaster director Leo Mampmani confirmed that two bodies – one female and male – had been found but their identities were yet to be verified.
He said it was important to verify the identities of bodies being washed ashore because apart from the five, another seven people had gone missing in West New Britain waters in July and had not been found.
"The bodies resurfacing could be anyone, which is why verification and confirmation by authorities must be undertaken," he said.
The provincial disaster committee chairman and West New Britain provincial administrator Steven Raphael was expected to give a daily update.
