Peter O’Neill claims corruption busters have cleared him
19 November 2013
RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL
PAPUA NEW GUINEA's Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has said that an independent police probe into corruption has cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Mr O’Neill was implicated in an investigation into corrupt payments from government coffers to high-profile lawyer Paul Paraka, who was arrested last month.
He says the only link to him is a letter approving payments with his signature, which he says is forged.
“They have established that the letter did not originate from my office so this is just an unnecessary distraction from the real issues in the country,” Mr O’Neill said.
“I call on people to be a bit more constructive in their debates rather than trying to find a link that is not there.”
The head of Task Force Sweep, Sam Koim, says the investigation is still in train and no one is above the law.
Mr Koim has not clarified whether the prime minister is under investigation.
It would be very humiliating if an anti-corruption stauchman like PNG's present PM was found to be always corrupt all along and hiding behind made-up words of virtue.
For now, it is a little bit funny that the PM himself should be doing his own public relations announcements especially on official 'roumours' of corruption against him.
This is becasue psychologically in the public minds it is seen as a sign that the man is losing solid grounds, like taking a fast short-cut in times of emmergency such as in panick situations.
Some even assumed it is one of the new ammendments lately done to the constitution on the leadership codes of conduct.
The thing is sometimes when leaders become convinced of their own righteousness they think the public is already automatically conviced as well.
Just because parliamentarians and those inside parliament know how things are going on doesnt mean the whole of PNG knows - we need proper awareness on information, and any change to them all the time.
Substantial information gets leaked out via means other than the normal ones if peple are starved of satisfactory information on significant developments.
Posted by: Steve W Labuan | 20 November 2013 at 11:16 AM
Surely if the PM was cleared then it would be have been in the news for everyone to see but at this stage there's been no such investigations or inquiry results made known to the public.
Does that mean the other two ministers Polye and Marabe also been cleared?
Posted by: Frank K Daosak | 19 November 2013 at 10:07 PM
It is rumoured that a lot of PNG political people own property in Australia. Is Mr O'Neill in this category?
Posted by: David Wall | 19 November 2013 at 06:29 PM