Prime Minister James Marape says the police force in Papua New Guinea has powers to conduct investigations into fraudulent deals involving allegations against Politicians.
PM Marape was responding to questions by Deputy Opposition leader, Dr. Allan Marat’s questions on whether the Prime Minister will launch investigations into the Petroleum Retention Licence 21 deal.
“Has the Prime Minister discharged his duties to communicate with the Ombudsman Commission and the PNG Law Society any suggestions on investigations into the alleged official corruption, fraud and bribery in the issuing of PRL 21 by the Department of Petroleum and Energy”, Dr. Marat asked.
In response, Prime Minister Marape said, he has communicated with his counterpart, Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, for any evidence to be passed on to the Ombudsman Commission or Police, to allow them to also investigate.
Meanwhile, Deputy Opposition Leader, Dr Marat, also asked the Prime Minister whether he will sack the Minister for Commerce, Trade and Industry, William Duma, in regards to the Horizon Deal articles that were published by Australian Financial Review.
The Prime Minister responded to that saying he has seen there isn’t sufficient evidence of corruption but only media reports alleging the Minister was a part of a PRL 21 licensing blackmail to have 10% of the shares. The 10% share was later resold to Horizon for USD10.4 million.
PM Marape added that Minister Duma has been asked to make a public statement on the issue and will do so once he has all his facts in place.
