The Papua New Guinea (PNG) police force is the most corrupt public agency in the nation, engaged in drug-smuggling, gun-running and land theft, and beset by “a rampant culture of police ill-discipline and brutality,” Papua New Guinean Minister for Police Bryan Kramer said on Wednesday, in an extraordinary condemnation of his own force.
Kramer used the occasion of the nation’s independence anniversary to launch a swingeing attack on the police force, saying its endemic corruption would take years, even a generation, to eradicate.
His statement followed a concession by Police Commissioner David Manning that his force includes “criminals in uniform.”
“I found our police force in complete disarray and riddled with corruption,” Kramer wrote online about his first 15 months as minister for police. “The very organisation that was tasked with fighting corruption had become the leading agency in acts of corruption. Add to that a rampant culture of police ill-discipline and brutality.”
“Senior officers based in police headquarters in Port Moresby were stealing from their own retired officers’ pension funds. They were implicated in organised crime, drug syndicates, smuggling firearms, stealing fuel, insurance scams, and even misusing police allowances,” he wrote. “They misused tens of millions of kina allocated for police housing, resources and welfare. We also uncovered many cases of senior officers facilitating the theft of police land.”
Kramer said that many of the nation’s best police officers had retired or were dismissed “for trying to do the right thing.”
Kramer, the sole lawmaker of the Allegiance party that he founded, was voted to parliament in 2017 on a declared platform of transparency and good governance. He was instrumental in exposing a loans scandal that ultimately ended the government of former Papua New Guinean prime minister Peter O’Neill.
Kramer said that a little more than a year in government had revealed the extent of the nation’s systemic corruption.
“Having spent time on the inside, I can see the extent of corruption in PNG. It is so deep-rooted and so entrenched in every aspect of politics and business that it is almost beyond comprehension, and appears never-ending,” he wrote. “The country was, and is, on the verge of collapse. Given the extent of the damage, it will take five years just to stop it from sinking further. It will take a generation to turn it around.”
Kramer said that the government was working on sweeping reforms to the police force, “from the top down.”
He told the Guardian last year that he expected to be killed for his efforts to reform corrupt institutions of state.
“I have no question of doubt I will eventually get killed for what I do,” he wrote on Facebook. “It goes without saying when you get in the way of those stealing billions in public funds, they will do whatever it takes to get rid of you.”
Manning — installed last year by Kramer as part of his reform — said earlier this month that he would implement a “one strike and you’re out” policy for police corruption, violence or disciplinary infractions.
“I will be the first commissioner of police to admit that there are criminals in uniform in the police force, and I am committed to exposing and disposing of them,” Manning said. “They have continuously displayed a total loss of basic moral values. They do not respect the law. They do not have any sense of duty, commitment or loyalty, and act as if they are a law unto themselves. Their free rein ends now.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of