David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 25 March 2011:

(1)   How many cases of alleged corruption in Papua New Guinea: (a) are currently being investigated; and (b) were investigated in each calendar year, from 2005 to 2010, including how many of these cases resulted in: (i) dismissal, (ii) a fine, (iii) demotion, and (iv) any other penalty being handed down.

(2)   For each calendar year, from 2005 to 2010, what sum of money was lost to corruption in Papua New Guinea.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Foreign Affairs has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

It is not possible to provide authoritative and reliable information in response to these questions.

I am advised that PNG authorities do not aggregate data on cases of alleged corruption. Therefore, there is no accurate information available from PNG to answer these questions. International organisations and their affiliates, such as Transparency International and Transparency International PNG Inc, provide general assessments of corruption related activity in PNG. However, detailed case information is not available.

In March 2010, the PNG Government tabled an 800-page Commission of Inquiry report on the management of public monies by the PNG Department of Finance. The Commission of Inquiry concluded that statutory processes had been grossly abused allowing improper claims for payment to be made on the State, and excessive payouts to be legitimised, over the investigation period of 2000 to 2006. However, corruption covers a range of offences wider than the misuse of public money covered in the Commission of Inquiry report.