Mr. Hetinu was the Election Manager for the National Capital District (NCD) in 2017 when he committed the offense. He conspired with the Coordinator for the North-East District and a candidate to induce polling officers and voters with money to vote in favor of the candidate.  Upon a complaint by witnesses, the Police arrested Mr. Hetinu who was found to have in his possession monies totalling K184,300 and a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).

The MoA revealed amongst others and confirmed that the monies were to be expanded to influence people’s votes in ensuring the win of Michael Kandiu a regional candidate. It further revealed that if the candidate won the election, Mr. Hetinu was to be awarded security contracts for the entire NCD for five years subject to renewal.

Justice Berrigan stated that the accused had occupied a public position of authority upon which his actions would reflect the trust and confidence of the people in the Office. Hence his actions were a gross breach of trust.

She further stated that the right to vote is a sacred responsibility enshrined in the Constitution and must be used freely and fairly without any form of influence as it will determine the future of the type of government that will govern the people.

Though there was no clear indication as to what part of the monies were to be distributed by Mr. Hetinu and his accomplices, the heart of the offense was that Mr. Hetinu corruptly received the monies whilst discharging his duties.

Mr. Hetinu was sentenced to seven years with light labor as a grim reminder to potential offenders and to restore confidence and trust in the electoral processes. 

The National Court sentenced Terence Hetinu 51 from the Eastern Highlanes to seven years with light labor for Official Corruption.

A senior public servant attached to the Department of National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM) received a nine-year sentence for misappropriation. The decision was handed by Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika at the National Court.

The 39-year-old Jeffery Yakopya was the Assistant Secretary of the Economic Branch of the department when he committed the offense.

In July 2010 Mr. Yakopya, on behalf of his company Niugini Star Transport Ltd, submitted a proposal to the value of K14.6 million for the construction of roads and bridges in the Magarima District of the Hela province.

In November 2010, K5 million was approved from the proposal under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) or Public Investment Program (PIP) and paid to his company to construct three bridges.

Mr. Yakopya was alleged to have misappropriated these funds and was charged with one count of misappropriation and appeared at the Waigani National Court for trial in which he initially pleaded not guilty.

However, when the Court announced it would visit the site of the projects to verify that the funds had been appropriated accordingly, Mr Yakopya changed his plea to “guilty”. The Court learned only one bridge was built and the monies meant for two other bridges were misappropriated.

When sentencing Mr. Yakopya, the Deputy Chief Justice stated that public servants are employed by the government to serve the people by delivering goods and services meant for them and not stealing from them.

He further stated that honesty is a virtue that all people must attain, maintain, and retain in their lives at all stages of their lives. In this case, he said Mr. Yakopya failed to demonstrate that, even when the matter came on for trial.

The National Court convicted Mr. Yakopya for misappropriation of public money and sentenced him to nine years custody.

In a National Court decision, Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika sentenced former senior state minister Hon. Paul Tiensten to nine years with hard labor imprisonment for the misappropriation of K10 million.

Mr. Tiensten was a senior minister of the then Somare’s National Alliance Government, successively holding the ministries of Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs, and National Planning and Monitoring. Mr. Tiensten was first elected to parliament in 2002 and had been in political office for over a decade until his sentencing.

Mr. Tiensten used his official powers as the Minister of the National Planning and Monitoring Department to direct the then Secretary Ruby Zariga to make payments of K10 million to Travel Air, an airline business owned by Eramas Wartoto. The funds were paid from monies earmarked for rural freight subsidies as seed capital to get the airline up and running.

Mr. Tiensten was investigated, charged, and prosecuted and found guilty of official corruption, obtaining goods by false pretences, and misappropriation.

In handing down the decision, the Deputy Chief Justice said Mr. Tiensten used his “political muscles” to direct his official to facilitate the grant ignoring proper assessment procedures.

He further stated that it was a breach of trust and abuse of position whilst occupying a position of trust as an elected MP and appointed Minister of State to commit this offense and it involved a lot of money, hence rendering it a serious offense.

Mr. Tiensten was sentenced to nine years with hard labor adding that four years would be deducted if K10 million was repaid.

A former member of parliament had been sentenced to seven years in jail for misappropriating more than K1 million.

Mr. Philip Kikala was a member of the Lagaip-Porgera district of the Enga province between 2007 and 2012. Mr. Kikala, being the Parliamentary member of the district and chairman of the District Development Authority (DDA) convened a DDA Board (formerly JDP & BPC) meeting.

During this meeting, Mr. Kikala alluded that the members of the Board agreed that his company named as West Rural Industries Limited be awarded the contract of building staff houses for the Pyrethrum and Potato processing facilities at an allocated cost of K500,000. These funds were to be drawn from the unused District Services Improvement Program (DSIP) for the years 2010 and 2011 totalling K1 million. The Company was registered by the Member while being a Member of Parliament.

Mr. Kikala then wrote to the Department of Rural Development and Implementation citing that for prevention of misuse by the District and Provincial public servants, the funds be paid directly to his company account held with the Bank South Pacific rather than through the district treasury as was the norm.

Four transactions with varying sums totalling K1,107,000 were made into the bank account of West Industries Limited meant for housing projects, chicken house projects, consultations, and project management fees.

It was later revealed that there was no Board meeting. Further, no acquittals or projects were done to justify the transactions.

The National Court sentenced the former member of parliament to seven years in prison adding that if the accused repaid the monies in full at any time, five years of the seven-year sentence term will be suspended.

The former MP appealed the conviction decision but was dismissed by a three-man Supreme Court bench which ruled that Kikala be remanded to serve seven years in prison.

In a protracted court battle that lasted a decade, the National Court has served its verdict on Paul Paraka over the misappropriation of more than K162 million state monies. Mr. Paraka (aged 54) from Western Highlands province was sentenced to twenty (20) years.

Mr Paraka was a senior lawyer and owner of Paul Paraka Lawyers (PPL). In 2000, the Attorney General and Solicitor General’s office engaged Mr. Paraka’s law firm to work on behalf of the state in civil litigation matters. The payments of K162 million were made purportedly for legal fees between 2007 and 2011.

Every year, for five years, Mr Paraka procured a person or persons within the Department of Finance to dishonestly apply monies to his use and the use of others. The monies were paid by way of 65 cheques to a property investment company known as PKP owned by Mr Paraka and through seven other law firms – none of which had any entitlement to the monies.

In the case of the monies paid to the law firms, they at least retained a small part of the monies before paying the balance to the PKP or the Paraka Lawyers.

This was a carefully planned and calculated scheme to distance the accused from the money funnelled and avoid detection.

The National Court found Mr. Paraka guilty of five counts of misappropriation on which ten (10) years were given for each offense. However, it was reduced to 20 years taking into consideration the offender’s health and charitable and professional contributions to the community.