Report dodgy PNG investments: Transparency

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

TRANSPARENCY International has joined a call for Papua New Guinea's neighbor nations to dob in dodgy financial transactions by PNG officials.

The call by Transparency International PNG (TIPNG) Chairman Lawrence Stephens echoes a plea by the head of PNG's government anti-corruption body, Task Force Sweep (TFS), in Sydney last week.

Mr Stephens told local media TFS chairman Sam Koim's statement that financial institutions in nations such as Australia have been complicit in accepting money stolen from PNG's public coffers is not a new allegation.

"It is common knowledge that many Papua New Guinean officials have acquired property and bank accounts in Australia well beyond their official earning capacity," Mr Stephens told The National Newspaper.

"For a long time now TIPNG has been calling on its neighbours to help uncover suspicious investments, particularly in real estate.

"Once again, we ask that our friends take action."

Mr Koim, who once described Australia as PNG's "Cayman Islands", last week told a Sydney financial forum as much as half of PNG's $A3.5 billion development budget over three years had been lost to graft or dodgy overseas investments, and accused Australian financial institutions of complicity.

He said a TFS analysis of PNG's 7.6 billion kina development budget from 2009 through 2011 showed almost half was lost to corrupt practices by public officials and government departments.

Six politicians are currently subject to an intelligence-gathering phase of an investigation, in conjunction with Australian agencies such as the Australian Federal Police, into $A11.5 million in property deals in Cairns and northern Australia.

However he declined AAP's request to name the six.

"They have bought property and other assets, put money in bank accounts and gambled heavily in your casinos and have never been troubled by having their ill-gotten gains taken off them," Mr Koim told the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre on Thursday.

"Unless the money can be prevented from leaving our country, or prevented from entering Australia, the bad guys win and the rest of Papua New Guinea suffers."

In April, the Cairns Post reported PNG residents had bought $A4.5 million in commercial, residential and other property in the far north, the largest chunk of $A16 million in international real estate deals in the last financial year.

Mr Koim asked that financial institutions in Australia and other nations demand tax returns and salary pay-slips from prominent officials making large overseas transactions that clearly outstripped their pay grade.

The Australian government has yet to comment on Mr Koim's allegations.