POLITICAL parties and Members of Parliament will have their bank accounts under the spotlight if the Organic Law on Integrity of Political Party and Candidates Office (OLIPPAC) has its way.
A review of the organic law and the proposed changes is being done by the Registrar of Political Parties Alphonse Gelu, the Constitutional Law Reform Commission and State lawyers. Mr Gelu yesterday warned that under the revised constitutional amendments, the office will now have access to the bank accounts of individual MPs and political parties. Consultation is being held throughout the four regions of PNG and yesterday the first of such meetings was was held at the Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby, where most stakeholders failed to turn up to participate. Mr Gelu went through the OLIPPAC review for 2014 and in the consultation, he revealed that there are new provisions to amend certain sections of the organic law, which will specifically touch on the party and candidates’ accounts, fundraisings and donations from businesses and other organisations. "Parties will have to declare any funds coming into their Party accounts," he told those that attended, among them US Ambassador to PNG Walter North, TIPNG boss Lawrence Stephens and NRI boss Dr Thomas Webster and others. He gave as an example a certain Minister who was called to the office to explain an unspecified amount of money in his account and that of his party. "This is not the final version but these are new insertions into the revised OLIPPAC as per our June workshop that we are consulting widely on," he said. The new provisions look at Section 72 where it states parties shall not receive more than K500,000 within a year from both citizens and corporate entities. But if they do, they shall declare and disclose the sources of donations. "The registry not promoting autocratic government in PNG and we do not wish to change the structure of government.I hope that this presentation has given you some insights into the thinking behind the proposed changes both to the OLIPPAC and the constitution," Mr Gelu said. Comments are closed.
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