Prime Minister James Marape says the Government lacks the financial resources to finance the entire country with an estimated population of 12 million.
Emphasizing that the country cannot afford any more wastage in terms of funding and resources lost to fraud and corruption.
PM Marape stated, “We have been destroying our country for so long through wastage, (and) corruption and complacency. Two of the biggest cancer eating into our public service machinery and political structures – complacency and corruption.”
The Prime Minister said he wants perpetrators of corruption to be prosecuted with the full force of the law.
“For those who are tasked with mobilizing evidence, you must have the ability to segregate hearsay from concrete evidence. We want dispensation of justice at the very earliest. So that this country becomes a place where it is fair on everyone who work hard and live by the rule book and not those who abuse time in public office or who abuse the authority bestowed upon them by God and by the people we represent.”
Furthermore, Marape highlighted the outstanding efforts of the Internal Revenue Commission, led by Commissioner General Sam Koim and PNG Customs Chief Commissioner, David Towe.
“We collecting now much much bigger and better money than we’ve been collecting for (in) a long long time. We simply isolating operations in the dark, black economy, and re-migrating all of them into the formal economy now.
“Just by pure increasing of efficiency and good governance and pure work ethics, we have now increased collection. Not by increasing tax rate but simple human efficiency built into our systems,” said the PM.
Prime Minister Marape emphasized that Papua New Guinea must not tolerate corruption going forward into the future.