PNGExposed has received more details about Madang Provincial Administrator, Bernard Lange’s obstruction of efforts to tackle the endemic corruption in his administration.
Since we revealed the letters from the Secretary of Finance in Port Moresby requesting Lange to attend Provincial Audit Committee meetings and provide the committee with the information it needs to carry out its investigations, a number of sources have stepped forward with further information.
These sources have revealed that rather than complying with the instructions from Port Moresby and assisting the committee the February meeting of the Audit Committee was cancelled as the Chair was ill and two subsequent scheduled meetings were cancelled as Lange was “not available”.
Finally, both Lange and his Treasurer, Soten Uriah, turned up to the June meeting (eight months after they had received their letters from the Department of Finance). The pair did table some reports but they were not circulated to the Committee members before the meeting . These were complex financial reports which required careful reading and consideration. When the Chair of the committee suggested that the start of the meeting be deferred for an hour or so to allow members time to read the reports, Lange said there was no time for that as he had to be leaving soon. The meeting was therefore unable to engage in any meaning consideration of the information provided.
The Chairman, as we know, subsequently resigned over the lack of cooperation from the Administrator and his failure to support efforts to tackle corruption.
The Madang Provincial administration is starting to leak like a sieve – which shows there are some honest public servants.
