Prime Minister James Marape today confirmed that the ICAC Appointments Committee (IAC) met today to receive referrals from members of the Commission.

He confirmed that there are two misconduct referrals, one jointly by the two Deputy Commissioners, against the Commissioner, and one by the Commissioner against one Deputy Commissioner.

The ICAC comprises the Prime Minister as Chairman, The Leader of the Opposition, the Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea, the Chairman of the Public Services Commission and Chairman of the PNG Council of Churches. All members were in attendance.

“We established ICAC to fight corruption, and if the integrity of the ICAC and its membership is brought into question, we have a responsibility to attend to those issues,” Prime Minister Marape said.

The IAC convened today and received the two allegations of corrupt conduct from the two Deputy Commissioners and from the Commissioners. It decided to cause an investigation to take place within the month, to be led by the Secretary for NJSS, the Secretary for the NEC and a lawyer to be nominated by the Justice and Attorney General’s Department.

“To ensure that the process is conducted above board, the IAC requested that full information be gleaned and compiled by the three-person investigation team, and a report be compiled and presented back to the IAC, for it to carry out its duties, including making a determination whether a tribunal can be set up to deal with these matters, as provided for under the organic law on ICAC.

“The investigation team is expected to conduct its investigation and speak to everyone concerned with the referral for corrupt conduct, and they have a four-week time window within which their report must be submitted to us,” he said.

The Prime Minister thanked all members of the IAC for attending the meeting today.