PNG anti-corruption commissioners suspended after accusing each other of offences

Two Australians and a New Zealander at the helm of Papua New Guinea's first anti-corruption watchdog have been quietly suspended, with all three accusing each other of criminal offences.

The decision to suspend commissioners Andrew Forbes, Daniel Baulch and Graham Gill was gazetted on June 20 but has not been publicly announced.

The chief commissioner, Mr Forbes, announced the suspensions at a staff meeting last week, while deputies Mr Baulch and Mr Gill were out of the country.

The development has been labelled a "major blow" to PNG's fledgling Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which has only made one arrest and no prosecutions since it began operations in 2023.

It follows a drawn-out feud between the three commissioners, which rendered the organisation "chaotic" and "dysfunctional" according to inside sources.

Tensions reached fever pitch last month when Mr Forbes referred his deputies to police over alleged financial misconduct, prompting Mr Gill and Mr Baulch to leave the country.

The deputies told the ABC they would "strongly defend the allegations" and said they believed they had been "subjected to retaliatory behaviour".

The lawyer, the cop and the executive

Last year, Mr Baulch and Mr Gill accused Mr Forbes of suspected corruption and abuse of power, alleging in a letter to the prime minister that he secretly manipulated ICAC legislation to give himself exclusive power over key agency functions.

A warrant for Mr Forbes's arrest was issued in November, but he obtained a court injunction to suspend the probe.

When contacted by the ABC, Mr Forbes declined to comment.

Mr Baulch and Mr Gill have also declined to comment on the suspensions; however, the ABC understands they are considering legal options.

Maholopa Laveil, an economics lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea, said the developments were troubling.

"It is shocking and disappointing that all three commissioners have been suspended, even more so given that two are from Australia and one from New Zealand," Mr Laveil said.

"There would be similar shock and disappointment … had they been Papua New Guinean … but even larger disappointment because they're from Australia and NZ."

Mr Forbes is a lawyer from Brisbane who was previously a partner at the commercial law firm Turks Legal and has no apparent prior experience in anti-corruption work.

Mr Baulch is a former detective with Victoria Police in Australia and Mr Gill was a senior executive in charge of evaluation, intelligence and corporate affairs at the Serious Fraud Office in New Zealand.

They were selected by a group — chaired by Prime Minister James Marape with representatives from the opposition, the judiciary and churches — called the Appointments Committee.

ICAC leadership in limbo

Questions have been raised about the lack of Papua New Guinean representation among ICAC commissioners.

But lawyer and MP Kerenga Kua, who helped set up PNG's ICAC, defended the decision.

"I thought it was good to have people who are not connected to the people of this country so they can do a totally impartial job," he said.

Mr Kua believed the problems came down to a clash of individual personalities.

Two weeks ago, the Appointments Committee resolved to appoint PNG nationals Mr Thomas Eluh, Justice Ellenas Batari and Justice Don Sawong as acting commissioners.

Mr Eluh was ICAC's interim chairman before the commission was appointed and Justice Batari and Justice Sawong have served as Supreme Court judges.

But the acting commissioners have not yet taken up their positions, leaving the organisation in a leadership limbo.

Kerenga Kua said he was confident the acting commissioners were equipped for the job.

Corruption costs PNG $1 billion each year

But there are concerns the leadership struggles within ICAC have set the organisation back — with a number of senior staff having resigned over the tensions.

Dr Grant Walton, a Pacific governance and anti-corruption expert at the Australian National University, said the suspension of the commissioners was a "major blow".

"This is going to set that institution back even further and undermine the hopes that many people had that the PNG government was going to be serious in its response to corruption in the country," he said.

Maholopa Laveil said the ICAC had failed to meet people's expectations of prosecuting high-level corruption in PNG — estimated to cost the country over a billion dollars every year.

Since being established, the agency has only made one arrest, although the ABC understands some high-level officials were being investigated.

Mr Laveil said it was also a blow to Australia and other partners' efforts to support governance reforms in PNG.

Strengthening PNG's ICAC is a key pillar of an IMF economic reform program that underpins more than a billion dollars in budget support that Australia has given PNG since 2020.

Concerns over independence of watchdog

Others have complained about the Appointments Committee's failure to deal with the issues swiftly, as more than a year has passed since it received an initial complaint against Mr Forbes.

A second complaint against Mr Baulch was referred to the committee in August last year by Mr Forbes.

One ICAC insider told the ABC that the slow response allowed issues to fester within the organisation.

Committee member Cardinal John Ribat said besides the initial meeting to appoint the original commissioners in 2023, he had not been invited to a single meeting until a couple of weeks ago.

Cardinal Ribat said he was not involved in selecting the investigations committee that probed allegations against at least two of the commissioners last year.

He said he was also concerned that the inclusion of the prime minister and opposition leader compromised the committee's independence.

The ABC has contacted the prime minister and the opposition leader for a response.