The Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST) Secretary Fr Jan Czuba has written to the Office of the Prime Minister, James Marape, reporting unprofessional conduct by the Minister for Higher Education and Sports, Wesley Raminai, in using inaccurate information to discredit him.
Fr Czuba through a letter dated March 31, that was obtained by the Post Courier yesterday, wrote to Mr Marape’s office, reporting unprofessional action by Raminai, when he used unsubstantiated information from terminated DHERST staff, an issue that was currently before the Waigani Committal Court, to ask him to show cause for alleged fraud and official corruption, some of which had already been dismissed in the Court.
Fr Jan asked Mr Marape to, counsel the minister and withdraw this show cause notice.
In a separate letter dated March 29, that was attached with the letter to Prime Minister’s office, Fr Czuba, in response to Raminai’s show cause notice, stated that the matter was before the courts, was yet to be committed to trial and was pending a hearing on its sufficiency of evidence.
In Mr Raminai’s show cause notice to Fr Czuba dated March 26, as per information provided by terminated DHERST staff, he had asked Fr Jan to step aside until he was cleared of the allegations leveled against him.
Mr Raminai further stated that the investigations against the secretary were carried out between 2017 and 2020, and that he was charged with nine counts of official corruption and one count of abuse of office, and further asked him to cease acting as the secretary.
Fr Czuba responded to the minister’s letter, stating that he was aware of the allegations and that it had already been registered with the Ombudsman Commission by the same aggrieved officers, who were terminated for poor performance.
I am sure the Ombudsman Commission, after examining the evidence supplied, will dismiss those allegations based on speculations.
The Ombudsman Commission is the appropriate authority to investigate in this matter.
There were no investigations conducted, carried out between 2017 and 2018 that I am aware except for one in 2019, when the department was served with a search warrant to provide documents – which we did.
For the record, I was not charged with nine counts of official corruption, but only one, which was struck out by the courts in January 26.
– Fr Czuba
Attempts to get comments from Mr Raminai yesterday were unsuccessful, as was a response from the PM’s office.