Diro’s Star Fades

.. . with claims of a "personal vendetta By Frank Senge

THE Commission of Inquiry into the PNG forest industry has recom mended serious criminal prosecu tion against former army commander and Papua bloc leader Ted Diro.

Mr Diro has also been referred to the Ombudsman Commission, the Chief Col lector of Taxes, Police Commissioner and the Collector of Customs for further in vestigations and for possible criminal prosecution relating to a “conspiracy to defraud the State, Magi Wopten Devel opment Pty Ltd and perhaps Angus Pty Ltd by completed and attempted transfer pricing schemes”.

Inquiry Judge Mr Justice Barnett found from the very beginning that available documents “supported the rumours and indicated very serious misconduct by Mr Ted Diro”. In his opening address, Coun sel Assisting the Commission John Reeve laid out the various allegations and the available evidence. He alleged that Mr Diro used his position as Minister for For ests to grant the Gadaisu timber permit to Angus; that he secretly retained 35 per cent of the shares of Angus; that he was a per son code-named Andrew' and that he was party to Angus schemes to make illegal offshore profits by transfer pricing as well benefits from Angus.

Justice Barnett reports that this was done in the hope that Mr Diro would come forward to offer explanations or make ad missions. He found instead Mr Diro adopting an “aggressively defensive pos ture” denying all allegations.

This forced Mr Reeve to search out every voucher, airline ticket, accounting record, telex, facsimile and restaurant bill.

“Only when confronted with an over

whelming volume of documentary evi dence did Mr Diro begin to make concessions and he did so grudgingly, fact by fact, admitting only as much as he was obliged to at any one time. In the process he told a mixture of reluctant truths, half truths and untruths,” the report men tions. As a result he was charged with six different counts of lying under oath.

Mr Justice Barnett said Diro gave evi dence that shows he has deliberately made false declarations to the Ombudsman Commission and in his income returns both of which are criminal offences.”

“While trying to explain various pay ments he received, Mr Diro gave evidence that seriously compromises the Govern ment of Vanuatu. At first he swore that he received consultancy fees from the Vanu atu Government while he was a Minister of State. He subsequently ’revised’ this evidence and said it was received from a firm known as Mr Juicy.

“One of two explanations given for re ceiving cash sums amounting to SUS 134,000 seriously compromised Gen eral Benny Murdani, the Chief of the In donesian Defence Force;” the report states.

The Commission has made referral, as it does not have powers to prosecute and convict for criminal offences disclosed during the inquiry.

Mr Diro’s role in other areas of the in quiry may be disclosed in later reports.

Outgoing Prime Minister Paias Wingti said in a statement to Parliament that the report exposes the very people “charged under the constitution with the protection of our resources and people, as being in volved in the most sordid and degrading examples of malpractice.”

Mr Diro’s own explanations to Parlia ment were a mixture of self praise, sym pathy and anger. “I stand before you a very much a sinner,” He said. “I stand before you a man condemned by the media.

“I have not had the opportunity to re spond to the criticism levelled against me.

I have not tried to justify the reason for the wrongdoings I have carried out.”

That justification, as he explained to Parliament, was that Mr Reeve had a per sonal vendetta against him; that some of the allegations levelled against him were because he was carrying out intelligence operations vital to national security, and that the two Australians conducting the inquiry (Messrs Barnett and Reeve) did not understand PNG mentality well.

He hoped Papua New Guineans would be “more understanding.”

Mr Diro also told Parliament he would not accept any ministerial portfolio until he was cleared of the charges. □

Ted Diro: “very much a sinner”.