essay on corruption in png

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Forensically analysing grand corruption in png, by professor kristian lasslett 21 aug 2017 10 min read, making the invisible, visible.

The problem with corruption in PNG, at its most grand levels, is that it is everywhere and nowhere. Its morbid symptoms are apparent for all to see, but the particular mechanisms through which the disease of corruption infects governments and markets, and disables the body of the nation, proves difficult to observe, owing to its secretive nature.

Yet in order to fight corruption effectively, we need to answer elementary questions relating to its core characteristics. For example, what type of corrupt transactions are most common and damaging in PNG, who are the participants, what motivates them, how do they make their illicit gains, what do they spend it on, and which institutional structures permit these illegal activities to take place?

Despite the difficulties associated with observing corruption, we can still pull together enough credible data from the civil and criminal courts, commissions of inquiries, national audits, public account committee hearings, Ombudsman Commission reports, and independent research, to formulate hypotheses on these different dimensions of the corruption problem, for testing and refinement.

Sham fronts, illicit ends

And, in this respect, there is one general thread that runs through a vast range of corrupt schemes observable in PNG, whether it be rigged tenders, land fraud or sham litigation – they employ, on the surface, a range of legitimate commercial/legal transactions, to cloak what is in fact crude theft from the public purse.

Often a real service is provided, for example a road is built, or expert advice is provided to a government department. However, the primary commercial motivation of the corrupt parties involved in these transactions is not to profit from providing the contracted good or service, at say a 10% rate of profit. The real motivation is to use the contract as a front, behind which a deal is rigged, that allow costs to be inflated well beyond market value, leading to substantial returns.

In this context the 10% rate of profit is small potatoes, when rigging the deal can allow parties to set a price 4 or 5 times higher than the market rate when providing goods and services, or at a much reduced rate when the contract involves the acquisition of a state asset.

Indeed, contracts with government can be rigged by businesses in many ways, to achieve the same end.

For example, government agencies, such as the National Housing Corporation, the Lands Department or State owned corporations, can part with their assets at an illegally discounted rate. The private beneficiary of the contract gets a block of flats, or a major piece of land, for say 1/10 th of the market price, while kick backs are paid to government officials who approve and organise the transactions (10% of the asset value is often pointed to as the approximate commission paid to corrupt officials). The private beneficiary can then flip the asset on the market for a quick profit, which can be augmented further through improvements to the illegally acquired asset.

A similar logic could be observed during the Commission of Inquiry into the Department of Finance. Here legitimate and illegitimate claims for damages against state agencies, were grossly inflated by lawyers and private consultants, who then secured government settlements, with state officials receiving kick-backs from the litigants.

Here the cloak of a legitimate civil action, was used to do something illegitimate, namely inflate damages, to in effect steal from the public purse.

Arguably, goods and services contracts are the most overt example of this commercial logic. Rigged contracts are awarded to construction firms and consultants, who provide often substandard deliverables – or no deliverables in the case of ghost contracts – at rates far in excess of market price.

No area is off limits. Hospital construction, drugs for patients, handling deceased estates, building schools, these have all proven fair game for corrupt schemes – unlike the Mafia, no “gentleman’s” code of conduct exists, declaring certain social sectors off limits.

The consequence of this is we have economic actors ostensibly engaged in providing goods and services, ranging from construction of infrastructure, through to legal services, whose primary motivation is not offering a great product, at a competitive price. To the contrary, its about providing a substandard product (cheaply!) as a necessary condition for obtaining the main prize, a grossly inflated contract price.

Accordingly, we often find the epicentre for these rigged transactions are Supply and Tender Boards, where tenders and subsequent awards are deliberated on (in the case of state land, it is Land Boards). Boards can fix tenders, to ensure a certain party with inflated prices wins the contract, or they can allow the improper use of certificates of inexpediencies, which permits contracts to be awarded without tender, owing to an emergency situation. Although such situations are strictly circumscribed in the Financial Instructions, certificates of inexpediency are serially abused by government departments to rig large scale public contracts.

Most often, these rigged contracts are pushed from up high, by Ministers and senior officials. This has a debilitating effect on government business.

State officials and policy makers are not motivated by an ambition, for instance, to achieve development strategy outcomes or to oversee the sound administration of public policy – both are mere tools through which to gain kick-backs, or indeed partake in illicit deals through proxies (or even without proxies, so brazen is the execution of corruption in notable instances).

In other words, the provision of health services, or the construction of infrastructure, are not tools for achieving policy outcomes – they are the setting for netting kick-backs and rigging inflated contracts. Accordingly, these services are not based on need or quality, they are inspired by the private commercial and political interests of conspiring parties.

So looked at concretely in PNG, corruption inspires substandard markets activity and failed public policy. Meanwhile, the revenues earnt by the state through taxation – often through exploiting non-renewable resources – and receipts on state assets, are stolen through an edifice of legitimate commercial deals that conceal a rotten core.

Tracing the proceeds of crime

It is less clear what happens to these revenues once stolen.

Certainly some of it we know is spent by beneficiaries on houses, cars, travel, posh meals, jewellery, and the finer things in life.

There is also evidence to suggest some of it is used as seed capital for business ventures.

However, it would be overstating matters to suggest that stolen proceeds play a positive economic role, because they provide a source of capital for business people.

The fact remains, when market activity is serially rigged, seed capital is best spent in propagating further criminal enterprises – acting through legitimate commercial fronts – because the rates of profit is so much higher, than the returns promised through conventional business models.

Indeed, in many sectors, failing to participate in the cultures of corruption, would mean bankruptcy.

We also know from shards of evidence that kick-backs and illicit profits are also being funnelled into the political process.

Fire sales of state assets, kick backs for rigged tenders, and misappropriation of funds through nepotistic awards, create sizable slush-funds.

Indeed, often there is a wave of illicit activity in the year leading up to elections, which is a clear signal on what is to come – namely, bribing electoral officials, voters, and attracting independent MPs into the party structure, through direct and indirect fiscal “incentives”.

Its an expensive business (and likely getting more expensive each electoral cycle), but winning high office is not just about enjoying political power, it in effect means successful MPs become a fixer in the ‘game’ of rigged economics. This position can be exploited in multiple ways to grow political and business empires, making the investment in electoral success the ticket price for much greater fortunes.

It also ought to be noted the risk of being caught in PNG is negligible – successful prosecutions are the exception rather than the rule.

In some countries deeply impacted by grand corruption, we have seen corrupt parties use offshore banking services and corporate bodies, to cloak their illegal activity.

Its not clear if in PNG there is significant demand for this kind of service. That said, we certainly know senior politicians and business people actively use offshore financial, corporate, legal and accountancy services – however, we lack the data to confidently state whether offshore entities are a significant spoke in corrupt schemes.

There are good reasons why PNG politicians and business people may not be conducting their illegal activities through offshore entities on the same scale as other regions. Primarily, there is actually less risk of being prosecuted in PNG for money laundering or bribery, than there would be the case if these transactions were organised in foreign jurisdictions.

After all, PNG’s law enforcement agencies are entirely lacking in resources, specialist skills and leadership, and political control can be exerted over them, where needed.

Equally, why set up a British Virgin Islands company, when beneficial interests in corporate bodies registered with the IPA can be easily cloaked through proxies. Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that the Company Registrar is actively policing company regulations – although at the very least the IPA has recently demonstrated a welcomed commitment to enforcing annual reporting requirements contained in the Company Act.

In a similar vein, why become entangled in foreign banks, when banks operating in PNG are enmeshed in the national power structure and thus more easily influenced.

Because the banking sector is so heavily reliant on the PNG state for its survival, there is a culture of dependency which would appear to act as a strong disincentive for banks conducting thorough due diligence when handling the accounts of politically exposed entities – especially when those entities are connected to senior political power brokers with a network of powerful allies.

Certainly there is evidence on the public record indicating some banks in PNG handle transactions that have red flags all over them.

Concerns are also growing over the independence of the judiciary. But this is often more at the level of whispers. There is not a surplus of hard evidence yet on the record to make confident assessments in this respect.

However, there is much more solid evidence on the record demonstrating that members of the nation’s legal and accountancy fraternity, are acting as key spokes in corrupt schemes. They help fix the deals, cloak the criminality, and launder the funds.

Given this is a widespread problem in both professions, it is certainly a concern that their numbers populate the judiciary and senior government offices.

Owing then to the professional expertise at hand, the lax enforcement culture, and the politicisation of criminal justice, PNG appears a considerably safe jurisdiction to engage in high value criminal conduct. So its reasonable to conclude, why go offshore?

The primary reason may be to spread assets. And we certainly know that assets resulting from criminal activity, are being held in jurisdictions such as Australia and Singapore – with little reaction from either nation.

Breaking corrupt networks: The many headed hydra

Besides impunity, another problem facing the anti-corruption movement in PNG, is the way in which rigged transactions are organised.

Evidence suggests criminal networks organising corrupt transactions tend to be small and nimble. Senior politicians and business people surround themselves with a trusted cadre of professionals and proxies, who do their bidding.

Often these cadres have considerable power over the affairs of these senior figures – so the bonds binding them together are tight, built over many years of collaboration, often further solidified through kinship ties, friendships and marriage.

Thus, it is exceedingly hard to break the code of secrecy within these closed, small networks, and even if you break one group, many others exist, operating largely independently from one another.

We have observed this type of structure in relation to terrorism, small cells operate independently, so if one is nabbed by authorities, the whole organisation is not destroyed.

In PNG this is not an intentional design – that is, all these small networks are not part of a much bigger conspiracy. Nevertheless, this illicit structure is a mainstay. So taking down one politician or business person, will not have a domino effect beyond their immediate cadre of helpers and perhaps one or two senior allies, because their affairs are rarely strongly interconnected with a much larger network of business/political figures.

Corruption misnomers

Another challenge facing the anti-corruption movement in PNG, is dispelling problematic assumptions.

For example, it is something of a misnomer to claim that Melanesian cultural norms are to blame for corruption. So the argument goes, Western style market and political transactions have become tainted by Melanesian kinship obligations.

While it is certainly true, kinship bonds can act as an important glue for closed corrupt networks, they are not the cause of corruption, they are simply a means through which revenue theft is better organised, drawing on the secrecy and loyalty kinship bonds afford.

Similarly, it is equally problematic to claim it is an ‘Asian’ disease. While it is certainly evident that Malaysian, Chinese and Filipino business people are actively rigging markets for considerable profit in PNG, there is a lot of evidence to suggest Australians have been equally prolific – although receiving much less share of the blame.

So it would be dangerous to suggest any foreign region is more prolific than others – but it can be safely said, foreign business people and professionals are high frequency actors in grand corruption as practiced in PNG.

Accordingly, steps must be taken to work with those  foreign states willing to place pressure on these transnational networks, through prosecutions and asset seizure.

Conclusions: Steps we can take to combat corruption

All of which may come as cold comfort for PNG citizens who have the unedifying task of working hard for their income, while being extorted through unfair market monopolies. And then as if to add injury to insult, citizens must endure limited, substandard government services and infrastructure, frequently the result of inflated contracts executed with no serious oversight.

However, be that as it may, unless we begin to map this system in intricate detail, formulating strategies to fight it will be educated guess work at best, rather than evidence based anti-corruption policy.

Of course it may be asked, whats the point in building an evidence based strategy, given the national government has not even followed through on an elementary promise to launch the proposed ICAC?

But long journeys take place through small steps. Each forward step in our knowledge, analysis and practice, is one step closer to the goal of making some serious inroads on corruption, however long the journey will be.

In short there is no diamond bullet.

But we can take steps in the right direction, like:

• Consolidating data-sources on corruption, so we can build more accurate empirical models of the networks, processes and mechanisms used to commit grand corruption in PNG.
• Apply novel data-analysis tools to squeeze more juice out of this data, to improve the quality of our theory.
• Expose publicly those involved in corrupt transactions and the techniques they use.
• Support victims seeking justice or restitution.
• Patronise media organisations and social media outlets putting a credible spotlight on corruption.
• Consolidate public pressure around a set of primary objectives, such as the establishment of an ICAC, or to launch an open-data project on public procurement.
• Build better relationships between community groups, NGOs, media organisations and research institutions, involved in the fight against corruption.
• Support those civil servants and politicians demonstrating a genuine commitment to anti-corruption measures.
• Acting as a critical friend of anti-corruption agencies, ensuring they are conducting robust, efficient investigations, and are being supported by government through adequate budgets and infrastructure.
• Promote a culture of transparency and data-openness, ensuring all oversight organisations are making their reporting available to the public in a timely and accessible manner.
• Target known choke points in virulent corrupt schemes, such as Supply and Tender Boards, or prolific banking institutions and law firms.
• Remain vigilant, ensuring revelations and recommendations produced through commissions of inquiry, etc., are not forgotten.

Of course, this list could go for many pages. The point is, if we try to eat the entire meal of anti-corruption in one bite, its impossible. But we can begin to make progress, one bite at a time.

The greatest defence corrupt networks have, is a public who feels disempowered and demoralised – and sometimes just a few victories can suddenly electrify a nation.

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Governance and Corruption in PNG’s Public Service: Insights From Four Subnational Administrations

Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper No. 81

37 Pages Posted: 22 Apr 2019

Grant Walton

Australian National University - Development Policy Centre

Date Written: April 3, 2019

The Papua New Guinea (PNG) government and international donors have spent millions of kina trying to improve governance in the country’s bureaucracy. Despite these efforts, there are few indicators of success: many consider PNG’s public service to be rife with corruption. However, narratives about these problems have excluded public servants’ perspectives: there is little empirical data about why public servants might support or resist corruption and poor governance. This paper draws on interviews with 136 public servants across four provinces – Eastern Highlands, Milne Bay, Madang and New Ireland – to provide insights into what PNG’s bureaucrats think about these issues. It finds that public servants are often ill-informed about the laws and rules guiding their roles, and are under enormous pressure to provide unofficial favours to businesses, politicians and kith and kin. Yet, some are able to resist these pressures better than others, with senior staff, men, and those in Milne Bay and Madang better placed to push back against and report corruption. Findings suggest that policies that aim to support and inform the less enfranchised (women and junior staff) are particularly important for addressing corruption in PNG. However, this paper argues that efforts to shift the status quo must take into account the contextually-specific relationships between bureaucrats, politicians and citizens, which vary across time and space.

Keywords: governance corruption public service PNG

JEL Classification: H83

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Grant Walton (Contact Author)

Australian national university - development policy centre ( email ).

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601 Australia

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The 2022 Corruption Perceptions report highlights the urgent need for Government to take immediate and serious action to address corruption.

• January 31, 2023

Today, Transparency International PNG released the results of the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in line with the uplifting of the global embargo.

The CPI is a survey that scores countries and territories around the world based on perceptions of public sector corruption. The scores reflect the views of experts and surveys from businesspeople, not the public.

The theme for this year’s CPI report is Conflict, Peace and Security. The theme hones in on how corruption fuels conflict, subsequently threatening durable peace, further putting pressure on resources, weakens the independence of watchdog agencies, fuels impunity undermines state legitimacy and weakens public trust in the state’s capacity and willingness to enforce laws.

The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index scored Papua New Guinea a low 30 out of 100, highlighting a stagnation in the government’s efforts in clamping down on public sector corruption. While there have been positive developments, unfortunately these have largely been isolated and have not yet been fully implemented and as a result minimizing their impact and effectiveness.

In launching the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, TIPNG Board Chair Peter Aitsi said, “Political leaders must recognise the dire threat that corruption poses to national and international peace and security, and must make anti-corruption efforts an integral focus of foreign and domestic policy by prioritising transparency which will enable proper oversight and enable meaningful engagement of civil society in scrutinising the use of public funds. ”

Following the country’s 2022 National General Elections and all the irregularities pertaining to the administration and conduct of elections as highlighted in TIPNG’s Election Observation Report , TIPNG has recommended four core areas which, if focused on, have the potential to drastically reduce the impact of corruption in country.

TIPNG’s four recommendations are:

1. Strengthen and secure the independence of watchdog agencies: Anti-corruption agencies and oversight institutions must have sufficient resources and independence to perform their duties. Governments should strengthen institutional controls to manage risk of corruption in defence and security.

2. Improve access to public information: Ensuring the public is able to better access public information in a timely manner will assist achieve greater transparency and accountability for Government.

3. Limit private influence by regulating lobbying and promoting open access to decision-making: Policies and resources should be determined by fair and public processes. Measures such as establishing mandatory public registers of lobbyists,enabling public scrutiny of lobbying interactions and enforcing strong conflict of interest regulations are essential.

4. Combat transnational forms of corruption: Clamp down on corporate secrecy, foreign bribery and complicit professional enablers, such as bankers and lawyers. Take advantage of new ways of working together to ensure that illicit assets can be effectively traced, investigated, confiscated and returned to the victims.

Ends…///

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Ending corruption is key to increasing prosperity

December 31, 2021.

Papua New Guinea was one of the first countries in the Asia- Pacific to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, in 2007, and continues the journey of ending corruption to increase prosperity for all.

As Dirk Wagener, UN Resident Coordinator a.i. in Papua New Guinea, wrote on International Anti-Corruption Day 2021, it is very encouraging that Papua New Guinea has made visible progress in establishing key anti-corruption instruments over the past few years.

Corruption affects all of society by diverting funds from core basic services, resulting in inequality and undermining trust in public institutions. In particular, the key adoption of the Organic Law on the Independent Commission Against Corruption has enabled the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and the adoption of the Whistleblower Act in 2020.

The latest achievements in Papua New Guinea’s fight against corruption and towards greater accountability and transparency has seen further work on the National Anti-Corruption Plan of Action (2020 - 2025) to implement a National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2010 – 2030). Preparations are also underway for the National Right to Information Policy aiming for the adoption of the Right to Information Law.

The United Nations Development Programme, jointly with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, is implementing the  Preventing and Countering Corruption in Papua New Guinea Project,  funded by the European Union.

This Project aims to strengthen the Government’s commitment and capacities to address corruption in line with the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and to effectively progress the Sustainable Development Goals for the benefit of all Papua New Guineans.

Key project partners include the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Department of Justice and Attorney-General and other key national agencies, civil society, and communities.

The Project will also direct specific support towards core anti-corruption institutions, particularly the new Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, national and provincial fraud units, and the Office of the Public Prosecutor to strengthen their capacities to investigate and prosecute corruption.

An integral part of the EU-PNG Partnership for Good Governance, the overall goal of the Project is to substantially reduce corruption. The key message of the 2021 Anti-Corruption Day was that every person has the right and responsibility to tackle corruption. Together with Government, civil society, the private sector, development partners, media, and youth - all citizens can contribute to combatting corruption in Papua New Guinea.

By doing so, Papua New Guinea can harness and steward its abundant natural and human resources for the benefit of all people across the country and ensure that development is inclusive, benefits all and does not destroy or unsustainably exploit the natural resources it depends on.

Your Right, Your Role: Say #NoToCorruption | #IACD2021 - More About UNDP's Work:  Anti-Corruption efforts given critical boost with new project

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Good Governance, Corruption, and Papua New Guinea’s Public Service

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The Pacific Island region comprises a diverse array of countries that face a variety of challenges. For some, this includes weak governance and public sector corruption. This chapter explores these issues by drawing on research with public servants in the largest (by population and landmass) Pacific Island nation, Papua New Guinea, a country categorized by many as acutely corrupt. In line with scholars who suggest good governance should be tied to the delivery of political goods, it finds that public servants prioritize service delivery over impartiality. This is in part because many believe laws and rules are overly onerous, relevant guidelines and laws are difficult to locate, and public servants are under enormous pressure to provide unofficial favors to businesses, politicians, and kith and kin. Government policies that have strengthened relations between MPs, citizens, and public servants have exacerbated these pressures. In addition, public servants face significant barriers to reporting corruption, a key threat to good governance. The chapter highlights the importance of grounding debates about good governance by reflecting on the contextual challenges facing public servants. It argues that efforts to shift the status quo in PNG and places like it must take into account the contextually specific relationships between bureaucrats, business elites, politicians, and citizens, which vary across the country.

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Walton, G.W. (2020). Good Governance, Corruption, and Papua New Guinea’s Public Service. In: Sullivan, H., Dickinson, H., Henderson, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03008-7_65-1

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Accepted : 27 November 2019

Published : 08 February 2020

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United Nations

Unodc regional office for southeast asia and the pacific, papua new guinea on the world stage in the fight against corruption.

Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), 20 June 2022 - An official Papua New Guinea delegation responsible for combating corruption returns to Port Moresby today after exchanging best practices with international partners and reporting to the United Nations on the country’s progress. With support from UNODC and UNDP under the Papua New Guinea Anti-Corruption Project, a major project funded by the European Union, Papua New Guinea made strong contributions to the UN Convention against Corruption Implementation Review Group and Working Group on Prevention of Corruption, at the United Nations in Vienna. Mrs. Josephine Pitmur, Deputy Secretary, Department of Justice and Attorney General, told the Working Group on Prevention: “To implement the best possible corruption prevention measures we will be focusing on recommendations around public sector training, K-12 education initiatives and broadening our civil society engagement.” Effective whistleblower mechanisms, education and other corruption prevention measures have a positive effect on a nation’s development. In Papua New Guinea, where revenue from mining and petroleum are an important part of national income, and increasingly so when government Liquified Natural Gas project loans have been repaid, enhanced transparency and accountability would enable better targeting of resources to community needs for healthcare, education and equitable development.        

The delegation also received briefings on the accession process to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and met one-on-one with peers from several criminal investigation, prosecution, asset recovery and anti-money laundering agencies, in particular from Austria and the Philippines. Mr. Jeffrey Murley, Director Governance, Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Cabinet, said: “Learning about the investigation and prosecution strategies, whistleblower protection measures and asset recovery techniques of our international partners helps us strengthen our own approach.” Papua New Guinea, the only country delegation at the Vienna meetings to include a civil society representative, gave strong support to civil society engagement to ensure better policy development and implementation, a sentiment echoed by other delegations and included in the official record of proceedings. Mr. Yuambari Haihuie, Deputy Director (Partnerships & Policy), Transparency International Papua New Guinea will report to local civil society groups upon his return. The UN will assist Papua New Guinea under the Anti-Corruption Project to implement the recommendations the government decides to adopt from the delegation’s forthcoming official briefing to agency heads. Implementation of these recommendations will strengthen implementation of the UN Convention Against Corruption and other commitments under the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2010 - 2030) and the National Anti-Corruption Plan of Action (2020 – 2025). “The delegation has identified a clear pathway forward to present the significant learnings from this conference and study visits into the mechanisms within PNG that can bring about real change,” said Mr. Graeme Gunn, UNODC Anti-Corruption Adviser, Papua New Guinea who supported the delegation with Dr. Alma Sedlar, UNDP Chief Technical Advisor (Anti-Corruption), Papua New Guinea.

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The Corruption in Papua New Guinea

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Papua New Guinea

Independent Commission Against Corruption

 The Independent Commission Against Corruption is an Anti corruption agency established by the Constitution under Section 220 and is governed by the Organic Law on Independent Commission Against Corruption (OLICAC). The purpose of the Commission is to contribute, in cooperation with other agencies, to preventing, reducing, and combating corrupt conduct. The fight against corruption in PNG dates back to Independence when constitutional offices such as Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC), Ombudsman Commission (OC), Public Prosecutor (PP) and the Auditor General Office (AGO) were established through our Constitution. The efforts in the fight against corruption continued through successive governments and in 2004, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare took this fight further when he signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), during the Pacific Islands Forum in Apia, Samoa, making PNG a signatory to the Convention. Despite PNG being the first Pacific Island Country to become a Signatory to the UNCAC, it was only ratified to the Convention by our Parliament in 2007.

In 2009, the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 2010-2030 was launched and following that the National Anti-Corruption Plan of Action (NACPA) was developed to bring all relevant agencies/bodies together to implement the NACS.

In 2014, Amendment No. 40/2014 was made to the PNG Constitution enabling the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Office as well as paving the way for the enactment of the Organic Law on the Independent Commission Against Corruption (OLICAC).

In 2015, the first draft of the ICAC Bill was presented in parliament for deliberation and passage, but was shelved due to the then 2017 National General Election.

The draft ICAC Bill was revisited and presented to Parliament and unanimously passed unopposed on the 12th of November 2020. Apart from the OLICAC, other enabling legislations like the Whistleblowers Act was also passed in 2020. This year, an amendment was done to the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) for the Unexplained Wealth Provision whilst the Right to Information Draft Bill which comes under the Department of Information and Communications Technology is being worked on, and will be brought before Parliament to be enacted.

From its initial re-established interim stage in 2018 to date, the office has slowly increased its staffing capacity to meet ICAC’s business needs..

The primary objective was to develop the Executive, Administration and Operational structures of the ICAC.

The purpose of the Commission is to contribute, in cooperation with other agencies, to preventing, reducing, and combating corrupt conduct. In line with the purposes of of ICAC, Section 220(d) of the Consitution the functions of the Commission are : a) to receive and consider complaints and investigate such of those complaints as it deems appropriate; and b) to investigate, on its initiative c) to exchange information and cooperate with other law enforcement, integrity and regulatory agencies, both within Papua New Guinea and internationally; and d) to refer complaints to other agencies for investigation; and e) to accept the referral from other agencies of matters for investigation; and f) where the Commission, after investigating, is of the opinion that a person has committed an offence involving corrupt conduct, to refer the matter to the Public Prosecutor or the Police Force g) to exercise such prosecution powers prescribed by or under an Organic Law; and h) to encourage, cooperate and coordinate with other public and private sector agencies in – i. research regarding corrupt conduct and anti-corruption strategies, policies, practices and procedures; and ii. the development, implementation and review of anti-corruption strategies, policies, practices and procedures; and iii. training, education and awareness regarding corrupt conduct and anti-corruption strategies, policies, practices and procedures.

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