Money is at the center of many challenges in the public offices which result in corrupt conduct of officials and the abuse of power. This was highlighted by a public official during a seminar in Port Moresby recently.
“Corruption is peculiar in every office. Amongst those institutions, they also have challenges, and money is at the center of it all,” the Public Solicitor said.
Mr Leslie Mamu was one of the four panelists at a discussion forum co-hosted and organized by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Papua New Guinea Law Society on 4th July 2024.
He said corruption is deeply rooted in the PNG society and we need a change of approach and mindset from individuals or groups to reduce or prevent corruption.
He challenged lawyers to take the lead in combating corruption and to work in collaboration with the anti-corruption agencies.
“Corruption will remain with us. The challenge is how we deal with it,” Mr Mamu said.
Sharing the same view, the ICAC Deputy Commissioner Prevention & Corporate- Graham Gill, stated that a lot of corruption in the country is simplistic and straight forward theft.
He highlighted that one of the roles of ICAC is to roll out prevention programs to break corruption.
“When you look at the context of corruption in PNG, it is fair to say that 20 per cent of government spending is lost through corruption, waste or error in any given year,” Mr Gill said.
“Prevention is about putting in place programs, procedures, policies, methodology, to make sure that fraud and corruption doesn’t happen.”