Australia has been singled out as the money-laundering
destination of choice for corrupt Papua New Guinea politicians and
officials. The head of PNG's anti-corruption taskforce says stolen
government funds are being washed clean in Australia, and authorities
here are doing little to stop it. Sam Koim, who leads PNG's Task
Force Sweep, says his job gets all the more difficult when ill-gotten
gains disappear south to Australia.
"There appears to be a lot of monies being transferred by people who have stolen money from the PNG coffers," he said. "They
have been moving money to Australia and we have evidence to show that
they have been depositing those monies in Australian bank accounts, and
also translating those monies into Australian real estate."
Mr
Koim estimates half of the PNG government's annual budget is lost to
fraud and corruption through a "mobocracy" of unscrupulous politicians,
public servants, lawyers and business people. He believes tens of
millions of dollars of that loss has been sent to Australia, with Cairns
the most popular spot to clean dirty money. Mr Koim says six PNG
politicians, who he cannot name because of ongoing investigations, have
bought million-dollar properties in the city. "I think it's common
knowledge that Cairns is a hotspot that most of Papua New Guinean
proceeds have been invested in. It's a convenient place - just one hour
flight [away]," he said.
Last week Mr Koim delivered his message
to a major reporters' meeting of the Australian Transaction Reports and
Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) in Sydney.
He says Australia must do
more to prevent the laundering of funds that are supposed to be spent on
schools, hospitals and roads in PNG. "What Australia should be doing is helping us put more scrutiny on those kinds of transactions," he said. "Ultimately
we want to see is that [money] suspected to have been derived from
proceeds of corruption must be repatriated back to PNG."
No commitment
Dr
David Chaikin, an expert on money laundering at the University of
Sydney's business school, says the issue "doesn't seem to be a matter of
high priority." He says AUSTRAC monitors international funds transfers and banks are required to report suspicious transactions.
But he says there appears to be little will to tackle the problem in Australia, unlike other developed countries.
"The
main problem, I think, is enforcement and to what extent there is a
prioritisation and the spending of resources to deal with the problem of
foreign corrupt proceeds being in Australia," he said. "For
example, the United Kingdom has taken anti-money laundering action
against senior government officials in countries such as Zambia and
Nigeria. "This includes criminal prosecutions for money laundering
and millions and millions of pounds being frozen and ultimately
confiscated and sent back to those countries in Africa."
The ABC put Mr Koim's concerns to Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, but she has been unavailable for comment.
culled from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-10/australia-used-to-launder-png-money/4304908
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