High level of fraud found in Parliament

                                                     Picture Added to suit the Story.
 



By JACOB POK

Fraud investigators have uncovered high level of fraudulent activities within the National Parliament which resulted in Parliament losing millions of kina over the years.
 
The National Parliament Compliance Audit Team (NPCA) which was sanctioned by the current parliament Speaker Theo Zurenoc to carry out investigations into the affairs of parliament revealed that there has not been any audit into the financial affairs of Parliament over the years.
These resulted in high level of fraudulent activities carried out by senior management staffs within the Parliamentary Services. Former Chief Financial Officer of the National Parliamentary Services, Charles Apoi was the first person to be arrested and charged on Thursday .
 
Mr Apoi was charged with one count each of false pretence, misappropriation, forgery and uttering.
The arrest was made through a joint effort by NPCA and Task Force Sweep team who carried out extensive audit, compliance and fraud investigations into the Financial Affairs of the National Parliament accounts, dating back to 2002 up to 2012, according to police,
Mr Aopi was employed by the parliament accounts section as the Chief Financial Officer until his suspension in September 2012.
He was directly responsible in making sure all claims submitted for processing were in strict compliance to all the financial management requirements before cheques were processed and paid out to clients and or service providers.
 
In this particular instance, Mr Aopi allegedly planned and orchestrated a fraudulent claim in which he attached a legal bill of cost made by Patterson Lawyers and processed a invoice of K330, 220.00 dated 14th October 2009.
The bill of cost were for legal services rendered to the National Parliament and NEC as authorized then by the chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee, Moses Maladina.
According to further police enquiry, the accused attached the invoice on the general claim vouchers dated 30/11/2009 and only had the parliamentary counsel sign as the authorized requisition officer.
The claim was not examined, certified and approved and endorsed by a financial delegate or a section 32 officer as an important requirement under the Financial Management Act but instead a cheque no: 251326 was processed allegedly under direction and instruction from Mr Aopi.
 
It was further alleged that the cheque in question was not raised in the name of Patterson Lawyers Trust Account but instead was raised in the personal name of Mr Jack Patterson without his consent, authority and knowledge.
Further police enquiry revealed that the cheque in question was taken by the accused to the Priority Banking section at the Bank of South Pacific, Port Moresby branch and it was further alleged that the accused forged the signature of Mr Patterson on the endorsement of payee section of the cheque and on the rear of the cheque as well before cashing the cheque of K330, 220.00.
Mr Aopi posed as Mr Patterson of Patterson Lawyers and cashed the cheque knowing without any consent or authority from Patterson Lawyers to do so.
It was further alleged that Mr Aopi was able to cash the cheque written out under a different name using his close contacts within the banking system at the Bank of South Pacific priority banking section.
Police said investigations were still continuing into other similar instances of alleged fraudulent claims that Mr Aopi and his co-accused were suspected to have committed, which have severely crippled the financial affairs and operations of the National Parliament to date.