Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has confirmed that his Finance Minister — and one of three deputies — has resigned after being charged by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog.

Local media first reported that Professor Biman Prasad, the man in charge of government finances, had been charged with corruption-related offences under Fiji’s political party laws and was expected to resign.

According to local media reports, Dr Prasad was charged with allegedly failing to declare his directorship in hotel ventures as required under the Political Parties Act.

The development came less than a week after the resignation of co-Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica, who is also facing corruption charges.

“Today, I received Biman Prasad’s formal notification of his resignation from Cabinet and as Deputy Prime Minister. He will remain a member of Parliament and caucus. His resignation follows the formal charges being laid against him by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC),” Rabuka said in a video statement released by the Fiji government yesterday afternoon.

Dr Prasad, who is the leader of the National Federation Party, has served as a cabinet member since 24 December 2022. He was responsible for finance, strategic planning, national development and statistics portfolios.

Rabuka told fijivillage.com that he believed the cases against his two deputies would not be resolved quickly, and that “it may take some portfolio management and reshuffling”.

‘Shortest possible time’
However, in a statement last evening, Dr Prasad said he intended to “deal with this charge in the shortest possible time and in accordance with proper legal process”.

“My lawyers are dealing with this expeditiously,” he said.

He said Rabuka had “assured me of his personal support while I do so”.

“One thing I have learned in 11 years of political leadership is that it involves many challenges, often from unexpected places,” he said.

“This is just one more of those challenges to be dealt with calmly, patiently, and as swiftly as possible.”

Rabuka has appointed an MP from his ruling People’s Alliance Party to take over the ministerial portfolios that Dr Prasad and Kamikamica had been overseeing.

Kamikamica is being charged with perjury and giving false information to a public servant, while the details of the charges against Dr Prasad have yet to be made public by FICAC.

‘Political and institutional chaos’ – Labour Party
The Fiji Labour Party says the latest developments is a sign of “a total breakdown of leadership” under Rabuka.

“Fiji Labour Party notes with deep concern the ongoing political and institutional chaos gripping the coalition government,” it said in a statement.

“Instead of confronting the crisis head-on, the Prime Minister has chosen to downplay the gravity of the situation, pretending that everything remains ‘under control’.

“The truth is quite the opposite — the coalition is collapsing under the weight of its own hypocrisy, infighting, and betrayal,” it said.

The party added the government is “in free fall” and the country needs “renewal, not recycled politics”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Papua New Guinea’s government has appealed to the Australian Federal Police and the Singapore Police to assist PNG police to link money laundering trails.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Prime Minister James Marape said Australia and Singapore had been the major hub of transit for possible money laundering activities.

He wants help from police in the two countries to assist PNG police in their fight against corruption in the country.

“We are fighting corruption. For instance, we are following the footprints of the [A$1.2 billion Swiss bank] UBS money that has gone deeply rooted so our police are working on it,” he said.

“Therefore I want to encourage police in Singapore and police in Australia assist PNG police to deal with money laundered from PNG.

“I want to appeal again to the Australian police and Singaporean police to assist our police and I make this statement as the Prime Minister of this country.

“And in the case of UBS, we have made [a] deep incision, we are following the money trail, the entire loot that was looted from this country,” he said.

‘Prioritise law and order’
“I want to give commendation to the Police Commissioner, David Manning — he is not here to stop tribal fights; stopping tribal fights is the job of our members of Parliament.

“Governors you have PSIP (constituency development funds) funds so prioritise law and order using your funds, do not wait for police commissioners to come and stop tribal fights.

“PNG has been labelled a corrupt country so I don’t want to leave this label for the next 20 years so we have to make an example out of other existing corruption that has been documented and evidence are used.

“And the ICAC [Independent Commission Against Corruption] commission of inquiry has sufficient evidence for us to pursue our efforts to fight corruption.

“I will indicate to this House that we will bring to this floor of Parliament the Finance Inquiry again and other inquiries that are outstanding.

“We will revisit if they are not time bound but we will not limit the limited police capacity so that is why I appeal to Singapore police and Australia police to assist my policemen to link to the money trails,” the Prime Minister said.

“Monies do not hide, monies move from one bank account to another bank account, forensic auditors and investigators will follow the money trials and our police are working as part of the law and order conversation, focusing on our country like fighting corruption like never before,” he said.

Marape said the ICAC, Ombudsman Commission and police would work in partnership in the pursuit to address corruption in the country.

He said with the efforts to strengthening the work of the ICAC, three commissioners had been appointed while a third Ombudsman commissioner would be appointed this week.

Jeffrey Elapa is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

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The Bank of Papua New Guinea’s Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit has reported more than 5000 cases as a result of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing investigations still awaiting prosecution.

Acting governor for BPNG Benny Popoitai said the FASU had identified persons of interest and companies and referred them to the Police Fraud Unit for further investigation and prosecution. However, none have yet been prosecuted.

He said at this stage FASU, under BPNG, did not have the powers to prosecute these cases.

“We have a real issue, we have not been prosecuting anyone under the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) law.

“We have cases of leaders being prosecuted, that we have sent to the Ombudsman Commission and others to the police.

“If it’s a tax matter we refer them to the IRC [inland Revenue Commission], If it is Customs it goes to Customs.

“The issue is, we do not have the prosecution powers so we send the information to the law enforcing agencies to enforce,” Popoitai said.

Risk of being ‘greylisted’
He also cautioned that FASU was also at risk of being “greylisted” for doing business with corresponding banks.

“PNG joined the rest of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing with the rest of the world in 2008.

“As a result of their review of our AML, they grey listed us in 2014 and so we got out of the grey list.

“They are going to visit us, to see if we are not ready, they will put us down [on] the grey list and doing business will be really tough because of the correspondence relationship with the banks.

“Some of the international correspondents will walk away,” he said.

Popoitai said the AML business was now under the National Coordination Committee chaired by himself and the Secretary for Justice to oversee what other government agencies do.

Marape calls for prosecutions
Prime Minister James Marape has asked if those who are found to be breaking the AML laws be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act (ICAC) for prosecution.

Popoita said they could only do that once ICAC was established.

AML law introduced a robust regulatory framework consistent with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Under the Act, the Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit (FASU) collects, analyses and disseminates financial intelligence, and supervises financial institution and Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs)

Members of Parliament under this Act are classified as the politically exposed persons (PEP) meaning their conduct of business for themselves, their family and employees are important as this is how the Act governs and ensures the PNG economy is protected.

Lorraine Wohi is a PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

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Anti-corruption efforts in Papua New Guinea have received a major boost of €5.4 million (about K21.7 million) in funding from the European Union, to be injected over three years.

United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) country representative Dirk Wagener said during the launch of an anti-corruption project in Port Moresby on Friday that corruption had hindered Papua New Guinea’s development.

“The European Union will provide €5.4 million to this project, in addition to the funding which will be made directly to the government of Papua New Guinea to implement key components of the government’s anti-corruption strategy and plan of action,” he said.

Wagener said the strategy recognised that combating corruption was a necessary precondition for national development and was fundamental to ensuring that people could benefit from the services and goods due them.

“It is, simply put, a precondition for achieving Papua New Guinea’s national development vision and aspirations.”

He said that if not addressed, corruption would impact on PNG’s achievement of the sustainable development goals.

Wagener said the project had four outcomes designed to strengthen local capacities to tackle corruption effectively in which both government and non-governmental organisations would participate:

• Outcome one is designed to support the implementation and monitoring of the national government’s strategy plan of action;
• Outcome two will focus on establishing a fully operational Independent Commission Against Corruption;
• Outcome three will focus on strengthening existing anti-corruption investigation and prosecution actors; and
• Outcome four recognises the role of the public and civil society have to play in preventing corruption.

“The project will work with the Royal PNG Constabulary’s national and provincial anti-corruption and fraud units and the office of the Public Solicitor,” Wagener said.

Anti-corruption top of agenda
In November 2020, Loop PNG reported that Transparency International PNG congratulated Papua New Guinea on the passing of the Organic Law on the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

“The campaign against corruption must be placed at the top of the agendas of our societies. Unless corruption is checked, it will poison our ways of life and corrode standards,” said chairman Peter Aitsi.

“At TIPNG, we welcome this law and the eventual establishment of the ICAC in our country. It is our hope that this body will further empower people in PNG to take action against corruption and work to protect the integrity of the people, society and nation of Papua New Guinea.”

He said that once established, the primary functions of the ICAC would be to:

• Prevent and reduce corrupt conduct, undertake research, recommend systems, strategies, practices and policies;
• Investigate and prosecute corrupt conduct; and
• Arrest a person of corrupt conduct.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz