Inland naval base purchase probed

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has announced an administrative inquiry will investigate a scandal over the relocation of Port Moresby’s naval base.

Suspended Ministers for State Enterprise William Duma and Defence Minister Fabian Pok are accused of benefiting from the purchase of land by government corporation Kumul Consolidated Holdings.

The inquiry, headed by John Griffin QC, will begin on Wednesday.

Duma is the minister responsible for Kumul Consolidated Holdings, but is alleged to own or have a proxy interest in a parcel of land purchased by that company.

He told parliament he was not a shareholder in the company which owned the land and the purchase did not involve fraud or corruption.

Pok is accused of appointing his brother in law as the Secretary of Defence and of being inappropriately involved in directing the Defence Department to make the land purchases. He denies both allegations.

The proposed site of the new base is 10 kilometres inland on the banks of an estuary.

A Defence Force committee reportedly advised against its selection and the relocation has since been put on hold, but the government has already spent 78 million Kina (A$31 million) on land transfers related to the deal.

O’Neill said the inquiry would not prevent an ongoing investigation by the police and the Ombudsman Commission.

“The inquiry will look into the role of relevant ministers, the role of relevant departmental heads and their officers, particularly the secretary of departments, and the heads of various state own enterprises, it will look in the management of these organisations and the valuer-general,” he said.

O’Neill said the findings of the inquiry would be handed to the government in four weeks.

“We will continue to work closely with other agencies of government in making sure this particular matter, which has been of public interest, is treated in a fair and transparent manner.”

O’Neill said the government wanted to make sure the report was tabled in parliament before election writs were issued.

In 2012 the Papua New Guinean government passed a resolution to relocate the defence force base out of the city.

Major General Jerry Singirok, a former commander of Papua New Guinea’s defence force, said it was inappropriate for the minister of public enterprise to be involved in the relocation of a naval base 10 kilometres inland, and raised serious questions in relation to the decision itself.

“There’s nothing wrong with the current naval base, I say this because all the state needed to do was acquire additional land where the existing base is,” he said.

Opposition MP Ben Micah said: “The land is 10 kilometres inland from the sea. How do you build a naval base ten kilometres inland in the bush.”

- ABC/PNC