Rehabilitation of Education Sector Infrastructure
In March 2009 the Ombudsman Commission directed that access to funds in the Rehabilitation of Education Sector Infrastructure (RESI) trust account is stopped to enable it to investigate alleged impropriety relating to the fund’s use (Arek, 2009).
The commission’s own investigations revealed that K37 million which was withdrawn from the same trust account a month earlier was not used for its intended purposes.
In November 2009 a cheque for K3 million from the RESI programme was presented to the Bugandi Secondary School in Lae, Morobe Province (National, The National, 2009). A year later an Aiyura National High School contractor was arrested and charged for misusing K4 million meant for the rehabilitation of the school’s classrooms (National, The National, 2010).
Other members of the public in far-flung provinces like Southern Highlands complained at the failure by their provincial governor to give K800,000 to the North Mendi primary school in July 2010 (National, The National, 2010).
This case follows that of the New Erima primary school incident in March 2010 when the school board chair Simon Eyork sought the assistance of the PNG Chapter of Transparency International (TIPNG, 2009).
In April 2017 the NCD education secretary Sam Lora said approximately K300 million allocated under the RESI programme was allegedly misused (National, The National, 2017).
While the Ombudsman Commission undertook its own investigations in 2009, it is not known if anyone else was prosecuted over the theft of millions of Kina in public money parked under the RESI trust account.
The impact of the misappropriation on public schools over the long-term period is enormous and the signatories to the trust account should be held to account.
