THE NATIONAL Court has been asked to lift the ban placed on the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the Department of Finance and Treasury.

Since the inquiry report was tabled in Parliament in March, a judge had placed a ban on its publication and the implementation of its recommendations.

Justice Bernard Sakora issued the ban while granting leave for a judicial review following an urgent application by former solicitor-general Zachery Gelu and lawyer Paul Paraka.

Appearing for the State before Justice Mark Sevua, Scholastica Nepel of Jerowai Lawyers argued that the interim injunction stopping further dealings of the final inquiry report was “an encroachment” by the judiciary into the role of the executive arm of the government which had instituted the Commission of Inquiry into the Finance Department.

Ms Nepel said the Prime Minister presented the report in Parliament on 4 March 2010, and this was to be followed by the implementation of the recommendations.

She said there were irregularities in the orders granted by Justice Sakora, and they should be set aside.

In response, lawyers for Paraka and Gelu submitted that there was an urgency which prompted their client to seek the interim injunction.


They said there had been an intention to publish excerpts of the final report in a Sunday newspaper, which prompted them to take urgent action on 6 March before Justice Sakora on circuit in Alotau.

Source: PNG Exposed