Wapunai calls on Marape and Manning to table covid-19 funds and audit report

Shadow Minister for Police and Health, Johnson Wapunai, has appealed to Prime Minister James Marape and Police Commissioner David Manning to release the COVID-19 report and audit of the billions of kina used.

This is the second call made by the opposition through the shadow minister following the first appeal made a month ago to table these vital reports.

Mr Wapunai raised this concern after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) effectively forced the government into releasing a partial list of the contracts awarded using COVID-19 loan funds on the website of the National Procurement Commission.

Wapunai asked the former Pandemic Controller, David Manning, on the state of the report and the audit of the funds but there was no response on tabling this vital public information.

“Unfortunately, Mr Manning, either ignorant or incompetent, did not respond to my public call and the government instead hopes this issue will be swept under the carpet,” the shadow minister said in a media statement.

“Assistant Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey has also been tight lipped about the release of an audit or report but preferred to quietly indicate in a recent statement that some procurement contracts were released online to comply with the IMF’s requirements.

“It is completely appalling that Mr Manning, and the Prime Minister are still quiet about one of the biggest unaudited expenditures in our country. This is scandalous!

“We do not know how much was spent in total to combat the virus, how much was spent to assist our doctors and nurses, how much was spent on medicine, or even how much was spent on vaccines.

“So how are we supposed to be assured that the government properly spent the country’s money responding to the pandemic?

“From some of the reports we’re seeing, millions were spent on hire cars, accommodation, purchasing vehicles and other expenses approved by the controller without any justification to support these payments.”

Wapunai said it was important that the government releases an independent audit of the COVID-19 funds for transparency and accountability.

He said the pandemic had resulted in extraordinary powers and less scrutiny which was dangerous for transparency.

“We must not forget that the country was shut down because of the pandemic, resulting in government offices like Finance, Treasury and Planning scaling down services,” Wapunai said.

“It was an extraordinary period which saw Mr Manning have unprecedented powers to dictate an enormous amount of funds.

“In that period, Mr Manning was in charge of such an enormous amount of wealth, approving many contracts, yet he has not produced one single report or audit of how he disbursed these funds.

“And even more disturbing, Marape doesn’t seem to care how Mr Manning spent these funds. Are we seriously saying it was appropriate for a police commissioner to spend millions of kinas on a public health crisis and produce no report on how he managed it?”

Wapunai has urged the Ombudsman Commission, Transparency International and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, to intervene and take relevant actions to make this information available for public consumption.

He said the people of PNG deserve to know how the funds were used during the pandemic period as it has taken the government 4 years since the global outbreak.