Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has confirmed that the cheque from the Government to the people of Bougainville has been cleared for use.
PM O'Neill was responding to an article in Radio New Zealand International which reported ABG President, John Momis, saying the $US1.49 million cheque had bounced back.
O'Neill told this newsroom that the cheque needs a letter from secretary finance to clear it, considering fraudulent cheques are being printed by various departments.
“Their finance people know that they need the letter, am told by finance that it is cleared.”
The PM went on and said the news is fake.
According to RNZI, the money, handed over just over a week ago, was an initial installment of hundreds of millions of PNG kina that Bougainville says the national government is constitutionally obliged to pay it.
President Momis reportedly said: “They keep on procrastinating and who is going to force us to implement it? The United Nations or Australia and New Zealand, the friendly countries?”