Anyone can make a complaint or provide information about corrupt conduct by public officials at any time.
Reports can be made:
In person: Central Government Office, Tower B, Waigani, NCD, 121
By post: POX Box 353, Vision City, Waigani, NCD, 121
By email: complaints@icac.gov.pg
By phone: 300 7500
We strongly encourage you to use this template to make a report. It provides you with useful information about reporting and indicates the type of information the ICAC needs to assess your report.
The ICAC can investigate any allegation of corrupt conduct.
Corrupt conduct may include:
- Abuse of public office
- Blackmail
- Bribery, including bribery in relation to an election
- Deliberately releasing confidential information
- Extortion
- Forgery
- Perverting the course of justice
- An offence relating to an electoral donation
- Loss of revenue of the state by tax evasion
- Falsification of records.
The ICAC cannot:
- Review, appeal or overturn decisions of commissions, courts or tribunals;
- Mediate disputes between you and others, including and public bodies;
- Review decisions made by another government body with regards to your employment or promotion;
- Mediate land ownership disputes; or
- Direct public bodies to pay compensation
Certain people are required by law to report to the ICAC any matter that the person suspects on reasonable grounds concerns or may concern corrupt conduct.
The Organic Law on the Independent Commission Against Corruption 2020 (OLICAC) makes it mandatory in certain circumstances for a person to whom the Leadership Code applies to report suspected corrupt conduct.
Make a formal report
Your report should provide details of the alleged conduct and should include details of who, what, where, when and how you know about the corrupt conduct.
What you need to know before you start
- You can remain anonymous
- If you are anonymous, it may be difficult for ICAC to fully assess and progress the report
- If you provide your details, we will acknowledge receipt of the report and may provide an update on the outcome.
- Understand who the ICAC can and cannot investigate
- There can be different outcomes
- If you have provided this report to another agency, please let us know
- Provide clear information about what was witnessed
- You can provide additional information attached to the report
Provide information
You don’t have to make a formal report about alleged corrupt conduct.
Instead, you can just provide us with information.
What you need to know before you start
- You can remain anonymous
- If you are anonymous, it may be difficult for ICAC to fully assess and progress the report
- You will not be updated about what ICAC does with the information
- Understand who the ICAC can and cannot investigate
Assessments
When the ICAC receives your report, we will acknowledge that it has been received. When you next hear from the ICAC will vary for each case. Many investigations will take more than a year. Please do not request updates, for the confidentiality of our operations, updates cannot be provided.
We assess every report to identify the allegations based on the information provided.
From that point we will take a prevention action:
This may be due to:
- no involvement of a public official
- the matter falling outside of the ICAC’s jurisdiction (who the ICAC can investigate)
- another agency being better placed to deal with the matter.
ICAC may decide to refer a matter to another agency or body, before, during or after an investigation.
If the matter falls within the ICAC’s jurisdiction, we may at any time decide to conduct an investigation or a preliminary investigation into your complaint.
Having made the decision to investigate, the ICAC at any time may:
- discontinue an investigation; or
- having decided not to investigate a matter, may decide to investigate the matter.
If the allegations are found to be unsubstantiated.
In instances where our thorough review and investigation determine that the allegations lack sufficient evidence or credibility, we may decide to take no further action. This decision is not made lightly; it follows a rigorous assessment process where all available information is carefully analyzed.
Investigations
During our investigation we can:
- use investigative techniques to gather information, including the use of compulsive notices to obtain documents and information;
- issue search warrants;
- hold public and private hearings; and/or
- analyse the information to determine if there is evidence of corrupt conduct.
The purpose of an ICAC investigation is to:
- determine if there is evidence of corrupt conduct and potential criminal offences or to warrant disciplinary action;
- Identify strengths and weaknesses in an organisation’s processes that allow corrupt conduct to take place or continue.
At the conclusion of an investigation the ICAC may report on its findings and make recommendations. The report may be released to the public.
Read more
Information for people involved in an investigation
Search warrants
Click to view more details
Protection of people assisting the ICAC
Click to view more details
ICAC notices
Click to view more details
Hearings
Click to view more details
Further information
Information for people at hearings
The ICAC may summon people being investigated or witnesses to provide evidence during an investigation. The ICAC can summon people to hearings to answer questions, produce documents or things, or both.
If you are appearing in a hearing, it is important that you:
- Read and understand the summons served on you
- Attend the hearing at the date, time and place you are required to attend
- Produce any documents or things you are required to produce
- Take an oath or affirmation that your evidence will be truthful
- Answer all questions truthfully
- Keep the summons confidential if the summons states that disclosure of the summons is prohibited
Do you have to attend a hearing if you receive a summons?
If the ICAC gives you a summons to attend a hearing, you must attend. If you do not attend, you may be charged with an offence which carries a maximum fine of K10,000 or 2 years imprisonment.
Can you seek legal advice?
You are entitled to seek legal advice and/or representation in relation to the summons you have been given.
Will you be identified?
To protect the integrity of the ICAC’s investigations, most hearings will be held in private.
The ICAC can also prohibit or restrict the publication of any information or evidence given at a hearing.
If you have any specific safety concerns because you have been given a summons, you should raise these with the Commission Investigators who serves you. The ICAC has the power to make necessary arrangements to protect the safety of a witness or any other person who has assisted the ICAC.
Do you have to give evidence if you receive a summons?
Witnesses must answer all questions asked of them and produce all documents or things required by the ICAC.
You may be committing an offence if you:
- fail to answer a question at the hearing;
- fail to produce a document or thing you are required to produce at the hearing;
- fail to make an oath or affirmation at the hearing;
- disrupt a hearing; or
- obstruct the ICAC or an ICAC officer in the performance of functions or exercise of powers
What happens if you are dishonest at an ICAC hearing?
You must be truthful when giving evidence at a hearing.
You may be committing an offence if you give false or misleading evidence at a hearing.
The maximum penalty for giving false or misleading evidence at a hearing is a K15,000 fine or 3 years imprisonment, or both.
What happens if you are asked a question at a hearing that could expose your own wrongdoing?
You cannot refuse to answer a question (or produce a document or thing) because the answer, document or thing could incriminate you.
You must answer the question or produce the document or thing. Failure to answer any question or produce the document or thing you are required to produce without a reasonable excuse is an offence. The maximum penalty this offence is K10,000 or 2 years imprisonment, or both.
Any evidence you give at a hearing (including producing a document or thing) cannot be used in evidence against you in any civil or criminal proceedings.
What if I have a reasonable excuse for not complying with a summons?
You may not be required to comply with a summons if you have a reasonable excuse.
The OLICAC provides some categories of reasonable excuse.
For example, you may have a reasonable excuse for not answering a question at a hearing if your answer would reveal communications that are subject to legal professional privilege.
Prosecutions
The ICAC has the power to prosecute public officials, for indictable offences that relate to corrupt conduct. The ICAC can also prosecute individuals who assisted, or have taken part in, or concealed corrupt conduct with a public official.
The range of offences can vary and most are found within the Criminal Code. Provided the offence involves corrupt conduct and is indictable, then the ICAC may prosecute that matter.
The ICAC may decide to bring a prosecution if:
- it is in the public interest;
- there are reasonable prospects of conviction; and
- the Public Prosecutor consents to the prosecution.
Committal and trial
The first part of the prosecution process usually begins in the committal court when an information and summary of facts are presented to a committal Magistrate in the District Court.
If the Committal Court considers that the evidence is insufficient it will not commit the accused to the National Court and will discharge the accused.
When the matter has been committed to the National Court then the ICAC will seek the consent of the Public Prosecutor to prosecute in the National Court. The ICAC’s power to prosecute relates only to indictable offences involving corrupt conduct.
Indictable offences relating to corrupt conduct that the ICAC may prosecute
The offences are broad and may include:
- Money laundering
- Misappropriation
- Corruption
- Conspiracy to defraud
- Abuse of office
- Obtaining by false pretence
- Judicial corruption
- Stealing
- Interfering with the legislature
- Bribery of a Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament accepting bribes
- Attempting to pervert the course of justice
The ICAC may not choose to prosecute all cases involving indictable offences relating to corrupt conduct. Other cases may be prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor. Even then, not all cases investigated by the ICAC will result in prosecution. There are some cases which may be referred to other agencies to manage accordingly.
Proceeds of crime
Corrupt conduct often involves the misuse or misappropriation of money or assets. The proceeds of crimes include the money or assets, such as movable and immovable property, that they acquire during these corrupt activities.
Criminals always try to conceal and use their ill-gotten money in various ways. Money laundering is one such activity. It is a method through which criminals transfer their illegally obtained money into a legitimate economy to make it appear legal.
Importance of recovering proceeds
Prison terms and small fines alone are not sufficient to eradicate corruption or deter corrupt officials. Once criminals complete their prison terms, they can continue to enjoy their illicit wealth for life, or their family and friends may benefit from it. It is crucial to prevent corrupt actors from benefitting from their corrupt activities.
It is equally important to return those proceeds to their rightful place. The funds might have been stolen or siphoned off from critical government projects aimed at public welfare, such as education, health, or transportation. For instance, funds intended for constructing a hospital or a road might have been taken by corrupt actors involved in those projects, resulting in substandard work or incomplete projects.
Acting quickly to deprive corrupt actors of their ill-gotten gains will also deter, disrupt, and dismantle organised crime activities. This will help prevent future corruption occurring.
How proceeds are recovered
Law enforcement agencies like the ICAC ensure the recovery of misapproriated funds under the proceeds of crimes legal framework. This often involves initiating legal proceedings with the assistance of other law enforcement agencies such as the Police and Public Prosecutor.
Unexplained Wealth
Sometimes, you might wonder how a certain public official visibly enhances their wealth overnight. The corruption or criminal activity is so hidden and secretive that there is no evidence traceable to prove any criminal offence in court. However, the wealth gained by the public official is obvious and subject to various public assumptions.
Any wealth accumulated by a person, including public servants, that is not commensurate with their income and cannot be reasonably explained as to how it was accumulated is considered unexplained wealth.
There are special measures to investigate, prosecute, and recover unexplained wealth. The ICAC is collaborating with relevant stakeholders to create a strong legal framework to tackle unexplained wealth in PNG. This ensures that the fight against corruption in PNG is well-equipped to bring corrupt actors to justice.
