Symptoms disclosed; now to treat the disease
17 February 2011
BY PAUL OATES
[PNG] loses about 50 percent of its government budget directly to fraud. That’s about K4 billion a year and on top of that PNG fails to collect more than half of the taxation revenue that is due to it. That’s from acting Deputy Police Commissioner Fred Yakasa yesterday when officially opening a workshop on Proceeds of Crime Act – Post-Courier, 15 February 2011
AT LAST, THE DEFINITIVE answer to where PNG's desperately needed money really goes. Fifty percent of PNG's budget goes in fraud and corruption. In addition, the PNG government fails to collect 50 percent of tax revenue that is owing to it.
Deputy Commissioner Yakasa effectively fingered the problem when officially opening a workshop on the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The next step is to do something about it. That's the real problem. Everyone knows what's happening. No one's doing anything effective to stop it.
Former politicians can now bluff (or otherwise) their way through customs and airport officials. They can enter PNG illegally merely by quoting the Prime Minister's name.
And by using the PM's signature and stationery, K125 million can be released to an MP for community projects. There would appear to be no real control of the PNG government’s activities.
In a recent article by AAP's Ilya Gridneff, the following comments were made:
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd said in a written statement: “There is currently no evidence to confirm such allegations. “Australia is strongly committed to supporting PNG to address corruption,”
Australia’s $457 million annual aid program to PNG focuses on tackling widespread corruption, but the realpolitik means little can be done when advisers actually discover wrongdoing. A lack of political will on the PNG side, underfunding for police, the jails and court system means most crimes go unsolved in the country.
Clearly there is no evidence as the Foreign Affairs Minister claims, because investigations are reportedly still at the looking into it stage.
Deputy Commissioner Yakasa is to be congratulated for having the intestinal fortitude to describe the extent of the symptoms.
Will his Commissioner now please address the actual disease?
Maybe many well educated PNGeans, in good jobs with a good income, who should be working hard to stop all the government waste and corruption, are keeping quiet as they know they have got away with not paying their taxes.
So maybe we suggest that the PNG Taxation Department crack down on all tax evasion. Once PNG people in the formal economy, earning a regular cash income, start to pay taxes, they will be more concerned with what is happening to their hard earned money.
There are good people trying to get the young people of PNG to realise that corruption is wrong. But to me, an outsider, there has not been enough "outrageous indignation" shown by the average PNG man and woman.
Jeffrey shows it in his poetry. Lydia Kailap shows it. She is a good example of what I mean.
Evidently I didn't teach my students enough about the need to be indignant. They need to show more anger when they see corruption, wickedness and government misconduct.
If they haven't paid their taxes, then they must! Otherwise they just fall into the same basket.
Posted by: Barbara Short | 17 February 2011 at 09:21 AM