Lawyers for Western Governor Ati Wobiro, Western Provincial Administrator Dr Modowa Gumoi and business Norman Carl May are still working on a bail application for the three.
Loop PNG confirmed with the trio’s lawyer, Justin Wohuinangu that they are still working on getting two affidavits or statements signed. The affidavits will be filed with the bail application.
They are also expecting a southern counsel or a brief out of the case to an expatriate lawyer to move the application before the National Court.
That bail application is expected to come before the National court next week Monday. They are seeking bail before sentencing and after conviction.
Wobiro, Gumoi and May were brought down to the Waigani National Court on Thursday morning and later taken back up to Bomana after lunch.
On Tuesday National Court found the three guilty to have conspired in establishing the Fly Care Foundation between January 1 and December 30, 2013, by using over more than K7m funding from the provincial government.
They conspired to misappropriate funds through a memorandum of agreement between Governor Wobiro and May for the Foundation to deliver projects in the province.
The Court found that the three bypassed all the processes captured under the Finance Management Act before they entered into an MoA with Fly Care Foundation Inc.
They entered into an agreement after a purported meeting on March 23, 2013. This meeting, the court found, did not eventuate despite meeting minutes produced during the trial. Other sitting MPs in the province, Boka Kondra and Roy Biyama, told the court they did not attend any meeting on that day.
Court also found that the Fly Care Foundation Inc. was only a year in operation with no audit reports, staff employed on an ad hoc basis and did not have the expertise to deliver services it was supposed to under the MoA. It was a charitable organisation.
Justice Ipang, in his ruling, found overwhelming evidence that Wobiro paid K350,000 to a company, New Century (for informal sector payments) as a cover up for informal sector projects when it was actually intended to pay for his electoral officials who led his campaign in the 2012 General Elections.
It was also found that he paid out monies for various church projects in the province without following proper processes. Justice Ipang said despite some programs completed by Fly Care Foundation Inc, no proper reports were given.