WHISTLE BLOWER CALLS FOR INVESTIGATIONS INTO ERAVE LLG FUNDS

BY Samuel RAITANO
A private citizen from Kagua Erave District in Southern Highlands Province is calling on the Police hierarchy and relevant authorities to investigate a particular bank account which he claims was created by persons in Port Moresby to access funds belonging to Erave Local Level Government.
The call is from Yapi Akore a veteran public servant and community representative from Batiri ward 1 in Erave LLG.
Akore, in a recent letter to the Police Commissioner, alleges that the syndicate created a private bank account where the Erave LLG funds would be deposited and parked into.
As such, Akore utilizing the Whistleblowers Act has filed the complaint with the police to investigate possible fraudulent access to Erave LLG funds through a named bank.
He says the funds were proceeds of the LNG equity/royalty payments, remitted from the Treasury or National Planning Departments where the project impact LLGs in Hela and Southern Highlands Province receive such funding every year and Erave LLG, was one such under the Gobe petroleum
project.
Akore says Erave LLG was a public office that was supposed to be run and managed by its designated LLG
manager, a public servant of the Southern Highlands Provincial Administration as per the Public
Service General Orders (GO).
However, he alleges that non-public servants and street level people in Port
Moresby have created the private bank account with the motive to divert or channel the LNG
equity/royalty funds into that bank account.